* * * *

Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira. Written and directed by Tom McCarthy. Rated PG-13. 108 minutes. Overture Films.

The Visitor, a superb new drama charting the personal awakening of an aging college professor who unexpectedly befriends a pair of young illegal immigrants, is a moving character study of adults drawing closer in crisis, finding love and courage in an unexpected places.

It is also a deeply resonant marriage of actor and role, putting master character actor Richard Jenkins front and center in a moving political quagmire that, through its well-played relationships, indicts the inhumanities of a broken immigration system and the human beings ensnared in bureacracy.

After the death of his concert pianist wife, sixty-something Connecticut economics professor Walter Vale (Jenkins) leads a private, closed-down life. Bullying tardy students and failing at piano lessons, he balks when ordered to attend a Manhattan global economics conference.

Played with dry reticence by the superb Jenkins as a man of no real distinction in a safe house of his own making, his life changes dramatically after arriving in Manhattan to discover his ages-old apartment inhabited by an equally surprised young couple who realize they are victims of a mortgage fraud—and suddenly homeless. They don’t want trouble, and we soon learn why.

Immediately, writer-director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) surprises us, as we wait for Walter to turn them out, which doesn’t happen. Intrigued by charismatic, Syrian-born Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a young street musician making ends meet as a jazz percussionist, and African girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira), who sells handmade arts and crafts down on Canal street, the two men cross cultural lines and age differences to find an immediate kinship in music.

Jenkins absolutely excels at revealing the liberation Walter experiences after Tarek surprises him—embarrassed to be discovered surreptitiously playing Tarek’s drums—and teaches him rhythm, culminating in the elder man of letters loosening up to join his younger friend in a Central Park jam. It a lovely a depiction of movie friendship, bolstered by the heartfelt performance of Sleiman, giving Tarek a palpable love of life.

The friendship is abruptly derailed when racial profiling by police at a subway turnstile results in Tarek’s arrest and incarceration at an immigrant detention facility in Queens. Walter learns from terrified Zainab that they are illegal aliens, before discovering that imprisoned Tarek could be deported at any moment without notice. Naïve Walter, imbued with American optimism, assures Zainab that he will "get him out," before realizing the obstacles.

When Tarek’s concerned mother Mouna (Haim Abbass), also illegal, arrives in New York from her long-time home in Michigan, she and Walter team up to visit an immigration attorney who warns them of their limited options in an already grim situation. Unable to visit her son in detention for fear of being arrested herself, McCarthy stages a stunning moment where she stands outside the facility in melancholic resignation, pained at being so close, yet so far.

While the film’s narrative shift here is momentarily jarring, The Visitor establishes an absorbing new direction as kindred spirits Walter and Mouna grow closer in confidence. In a series of tender scenes culminating in two pivotal confessions—the first a restaurant admission from Walter and the second a late-night revelation of guilt from Mouna—the two actually fall in love before our eyes, and we believe it.  Where most films contrive their love affairs, this one is wholly organic and believable, and not overplayed. 

Meanwhile, Walter continues his visits with increasingly frightened Tarek, sitting across from each other and separated by a thick glass partition, bringing him notes from Zanaib which he holds up to the barrier, politely turning his face away each time Tarek reads. Walter’s devotion to both Tarek and Mouna grows.

Both Jenkins and the weary, touching Abbass, the radiant international star of The Syrian Bride, Satin Rouge and Paradise Now, play adults with baggage being tested by helplessness, regrets and an uncaring system. It is clear that they are in love. But it is not discussed, nor need it be.

McCarthy wisely lets his characters do the heavy lifting and never makes this an agenda-driven film. However, through them is becomes a heartrending examination of inhuman United States immigration procedures in our xenophobic modern world of paranoia and false alerts.

The Visitor does not pull punches in its accurate portrait of a cold system designed to tear apart families and loved ones, who may have committed a victimless infraction years earlier—crossing a border to a better life—but have no business being forcefully ripped from their worlds. In a late confrontation with an apathetic immigration officer, Walter explodes in frustration while Jenkins, in the year’s best performance to date, argues on deaf ears for compassion and human decency.

McCarthy’s conveys many ironies in the film from the witty idea of a global economic professor with little experience in the world to a disillusioned man whose life expands exponentially as his country gives him few options to explore. Perhaps the greatest is two mature adults who find real love only to have unavoidable circumstances intervene.

Jenkins, Abbass and Sleiman are revelations in this tiny film using characters we embrace to put human faces on the personal struggles of immigrants. The Visitor is a gem.

Highly recommended.

- Lee Shoquist