The Visitor is an outstanding film. It's the first film in a long time where I found myself deeply caring for the characters in the movie. It has drama, sadness, kindness, love, happiness, romance, great music and even comedy all at once. Not many movies manages to combine all those genres successfully, but The Visitor does so in an extraordinary way.
Richard Jenkins is Walter Wale, an aging college professor whose loneliness is obvious from early on. This makes me feel sorry for him at once, Jenkins portrays masterfully a man that is clearly tired of life. He works, he eats, he sleeps, all with the same tired sad look on his face, and that is that. Until one day, he has to go to New York for an academic conference. He finds that in his apartment in the Big Apple, a couple has moved in. This changes his life forever.
One thing I noticed when I watched the feature, is that when Walters life changed for the better and I saw his first smile, I got genuinely happy. It is funny to see the white old man sitting in a public place playing the African drum, associated with young black men, and actually LOVING it. But we laugh with Walter and not at him. I also found myself almost praying for things to go well both for Walter and the visitors, like I said, I deeply cared for them all, and my eyes were constantly fixed on the screen.
The movie had great performances not only from Jenkins, but also from especially Haaz Sleiman as Tarek. Danai Gurira and Hiam Abbass as Zainab and Mouna were both convincing too. Together with a fascinating, rich and very interesting plot all this made The Visitor on of the best films of 2008.
Richard Jenkins is Walter Wale, an aging college professor whose loneliness is obvious from early on. This makes me feel sorry for him at once, Jenkins portrays masterfully a man that is clearly tired of life. He works, he eats, he sleeps, all with the same tired sad look on his face, and that is that. Until one day, he has to go to New York for an academic conference. He finds that in his apartment in the Big Apple, a couple has moved in. This changes his life forever.
One thing I noticed when I watched the feature, is that when Walters life changed for the better and I saw his first smile, I got genuinely happy. It is funny to see the white old man sitting in a public place playing the African drum, associated with young black men, and actually LOVING it. But we laugh with Walter and not at him. I also found myself almost praying for things to go well both for Walter and the visitors, like I said, I deeply cared for them all, and my eyes were constantly fixed on the screen.
The movie had great performances not only from Jenkins, but also from especially Haaz Sleiman as Tarek. Danai Gurira and Hiam Abbass as Zainab and Mouna were both convincing too. Together with a fascinating, rich and very interesting plot all this made The Visitor on of the best films of 2008.