The Visitor

“We are not helpless children”

Immigration, Romance, and the Drums. Which way, which way…

Richard Jenkins has been getting a lot of buzz for his performance in The Visitor. None of the Redboxes had it, so I bought it for my mother for Christmas. Was it worth the money – maybe. Do I wish the Redbox had it – definitely.

The film centres on Prof Walter Vale (Jenkins), who while visiting New York for a conference, finds two people inhabiting his rarely-used New York apartment. They are illegal immigrants. The plot summary stops here, because if I go any further, I will have ruined the film completely beyond its mediocre grade it will receive.

The film’s obvious message is that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be considered illegal. I have my own theories about immigration policy, so rather than trying to debate Hollywood or the ACLU, I will just analyze the film. The film was way too ambitious to really touch any of its points strongly. Only part of the film focuses on the bureaucracy behind immigration. Another big aspect of the film focuses on the main character’s growing fondness of the supporting character’s mother. Finally, another aspect focuses on the main character’s midlife crisis, and how he is learning to discover his true identity. The main visual motif it uses for this is Jenkins learning to play an African drum. However, because the film directed its attention equally to each of these aspects, and because the real political backdrop behind the film was obvious, though weak in its argument, it accomplishes very little. The film tries to do too much – is it really about immigration, impossible romances, or midlife crises? Well, I recommend El Norte, Shakespeare In Love, and American Beauty for all of the above, respectively, for those themes.

Richard Jenkins was good. He played his part well, and there is no reason to try to take away any potential Oscar nomination he might encounter. He has paid his due to the film industry, and his performance was pretty much the only thing that made the film tolerable to watch. His nomination is still an ‘if’ at this point, but he certainly won’t be able to win, I’m fairly certain of it.

Richard Jenkins saves this film from a worse grade, which I don’t really need to discuss. But because this film got lost in its own sense of purpose, I give it a C-.