The Visitor
Is there a point in life when we realize we’ve been wasting time? How long does it take for someone who has spent a great portion of his or her life to realize that they were just acting busy? And after those epiphanes strike home, what do you do? In The Visitor, Richard Jenkins’s character Walter Vale, a professor at a school in Connecticut, discovers these things for himself, finding that a life worth living is a life spent in pursuit of meaningful relationships, with all of the baggage that may come with it.
Walter Vale is a professor who has been teaching the same course for two decades. He has published three books, is working on the fourth one, and he has lived alone for some time now. He is told he must present a paper at NYU that he co-authored, since the other autor can’t make it. He relunctantly obliges and drives to New York City. When he arrives, he finds a bit of a surprise in his apartment. There isn’t a lot I can say, because I don’t want to spoil anything. The surprise changes his life. He finds himself in the middle of a new group of people, people who need him, people who see the world through different eyes. He decides he to help, and it is that decision which changes the course of his life forever.
The film explores the reality between opposite worlds and how those worlds collide and conflate, forming something greater than the two of them on their own. It asks big questions about morality and obligation, and it poses political questions about post-9/11 immigration laws in America. The film is a character study of Walter Vale, an archetype of sorts, a man who represents a great number of people who walk and talk and eat and sleep and repeat the cycle, looking busy, making plans. But are any of them living life? What does it mean to live life? What is a life worth living?
The Visitor is an exploration of all of these ideas. The acting is fantastic from everyone involved, especially Richard Jenkins, whose character is subtle and nuanced, a man in whom the search for meaning and the anonymity of routine have waged war against one another. It may have begun as a battle of wits, but it will end as a battle of the soul. He is a quixotic man at heart, whose exterior has been ravaged by both tedium and tragedy. The supporting cast is also superb. The script is absolutely perfect, and the direction is vivid and insightful.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this movie is the interplay of title and story. Who is The Visitor? Which of the characters’ lives is closest to that of outsider, the one looking in, the individual who seeks to become part of the group? In a way, it’s obvious. In another way, though, it’s impossible to answer. Each person is a visitor in his or her own way, and this film exemplifies and elucidates this theme brilliantly. It’s a beautiful film, and one which everyone should see. And I don’t think that’s opinion. I think that’s a fact.
Rating: 3.5/4 Stars