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- First reviewApril 21, 2008
- Last reviewApril 21, 2008
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sprosser's Reviews
Overall rating
5
/
5
Lovely, thoughtful movie
PostedApril 21, 2008
sprosser
from Gilbert, AZ
"The Visitor" is a thoughtful movie willing to take its time letting you get to know four characters, who at one time or another, each take turns as the visitor in the title. Walter Vane is a distant man, carefully closing himself away from other people and experiences. He's a blank wall at first, but we grow to like him as we watch Walter open up to a couple of undocumented immigrants he finds occupying his New York apartment.
The movie doesn't offer solutions to the thorny problem of immigration and deportation. Instead, it shows the human face of those caught up in the US fight against terrorism.
But even to use the word "terrorism" in this review raises more of a specter than the movie itself does. Writer/Director Tom McCarthy is interested in politics, but not in divisive arguments. He's much more concerned with the people caught up in these issues. So "The Visitor" deftly sidesteps polemics to let each character express joy and suffering. That's not to say that the movie is depressing. Like the main character, "The Visitor" moves gently through its paces while the curtain is pulled away from the lives of four people brought together by circumstance.
One of its best moments is the way Walter holds a letter up to a glass divider, so another character can read it. Walter turns his head discretely, so that he can neither read the letter nor study the reaction of the man reading. Another character would simply drop his head or his eyes, but Walter turn his head away from a private moment. Another movie, and many other actors, would hammer this point home, but "The Visitor" prefers to let you meditate on why Walter acts as he does and where his actions lead him.
The movie doesn't offer solutions to the thorny problem of immigration and deportation. Instead, it shows the human face of those caught up in the US fight against terrorism.
But even to use the word "terrorism" in this review raises more of a specter than the movie itself does. Writer/Director Tom McCarthy is interested in politics, but not in divisive arguments. He's much more concerned with the people caught up in these issues. So "The Visitor" deftly sidesteps polemics to let each character express joy and suffering. That's not to say that the movie is depressing. Like the main character, "The Visitor" moves gently through its paces while the curtain is pulled away from the lives of four people brought together by circumstance.
One of its best moments is the way Walter holds a letter up to a glass divider, so another character can read it. Walter turns his head discretely, so that he can neither read the letter nor study the reaction of the man reading. Another character would simply drop his head or his eyes, but Walter turn his head away from a private moment. Another movie, and many other actors, would hammer this point home, but "The Visitor" prefers to let you meditate on why Walter acts as he does and where his actions lead him.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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