The Visitor

Eternal supporting player Richard Jenkins revels in a rare starring role in The Visitor as Walter, a middle aged college professor who’s never really gotten over the death of his wife. On a trip to New York on business, he finds a young African couple, Tarek and Zainab, living in his apartment. With nowhere else to go, he lets them stay for a few days, but Tarek’s not entirely legitimate status in the US threatens their freedom, leading Walter to go to great lengths in an effort to help him. As a comment on immigration The Visitor makes its point well without ever becoming an ‘issue’ film, but it’s far more concerned with being a story about people. Jenkins delivers a quiet, dignified, beautifully judged portrait of a man who essentially has nothing in his life, but who finds a purpose and a direction that are as surprising to him as to the audience. In a lesser film Walter would have gone on all sorts of wacky mid-life-crisis adventures, but his taking up the djembe here is entirely organic while his touching relationship with Tarek’s mother adds an extra emotional dimension to an already wonderful story. [Paul Greenwood]