The Visitor

The Visitor is a frustrating film. It is a well-acted but inherently flawed piece of cinema that can be added to the lengthy list (made even longer over the last few years) of films that focus on a political or social issue at the expense of a plot and then don’t even succeed in conveying the complexity of the problem at hand. These films generally get good reviews by critics who are willing to overlook their weak storylines and one-dimensional characters because of their “willingness to convey a powerful message” but seem to forget the movies that were able to successfully combine both (Network, the original Manchurian Candidate, and Gandhi to name a few).

In the first half of the film, Richard Jenkin’s role as the detached, cold Professor Walter Vale is reminiscent of Gene Hackman’s portrayal of Harry Caul in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic The Conversation. Both are middle-aged men who are simply going through the motions of their daily lives without any enthusiasm or joie de vivre whatsoever. Walter, however, eventually finds his purpose and as a result does anything he can to keep from returning to his empty former life. While it is a little strange watching Jenkins rock out with on the djembe with people half his age in the park, that is the intended effect and he reaches just the right level of awkwardness to keep it from passing the line from endearing into creepy. Newcomer Danai Jakesai Gurira’s (whose only previous credit was an episode of Law and Order) looks of distrust toward Walter as the Senegalese Zainab tell more than any words could and Haaz Sleiman brings across the personable qualities of Tarek Khalil with a realism that makes you feel like he is truly a good-natured guy.

As much as The Visitor is benefited by its acting, it is disadvantaged by its plodding, predictable screenplay. The movie begins with promise but from the moment Harry meets Terek and Zainab all of that potential vanishes, leaving a meandering series of contrived events in its wake. For a film that seems to pride itself on its character interactions, The Visitor is surprisingly impersonal, due primarily to the fact that the antagonist is never really clearly defined. The problems that occur aren’t a result of corruption or some evil scheme. They are simply due to incompetence and unfairness. There is an emotional response to what eventually happens but it feels like it had the potential for so much more.

The Visitor ultimately loses points due to its stubborn one-sidedness. Yes, it can be argued that writer/director Thomas McCarthy had absolutely no obligation to present both sides of the argument equally and that is correct but by sticking only to the talking points of his position and placing them within a “personal anecdote” for emotional effect he is essentially doing the narrative equivalent of a politician’s sob stories (Edna Thomas is 67 years old and works three jobs to help raise her six grandchildren who…). This problem has nothing to do with the political affiliation of the film, just the way in which it is represented. As a debater in high school I learned that in order to successfully uphold your own viewpoint you should anticipate the other side’s strongest arguments and refute them, which is something that McCarthy does not do and, because of what this film is trying to accomplish, it suffers from it.

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Tagged as: Overture Films, The Visitor

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