The Visitor

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The post-Sept. 11 travails of undocumented Middle Eastern immigrants -- along with the personal awakening of a previously isolated character -- are explored in the sensitive, intimate drama "The Visitor" (Overture).

Traveling from his Connecticut campus to his long-unvisited Greenwich Village apartment to speak at New York University, emotionally repressed, widowed economics professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is startled to discover two squatters. Realizing that Syrian political refugee Tarek Khalil (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend, Zainab (Danai Gurira), have been the duped victims of a scam, he allows them to remain with him until they can find other lodging.

Despite Zainab's misgivings about their host, Tarek takes a liking to Walter, teaching him to play the African drum. (Walter, whose late wife was a gifted pianist, had earlier tried and failed to master that instrument.)

Walter's breakthrough moment comes when he, Tarek and a group of other drummers serenade passers-by in Central Park. On their way home after this happy triumph, however, a misunderstanding in the subway leads to Tarek's arrest.

Facing deportation, Tarek is forced to rely on the bewildered and outraged Walter as his conduit to the outside world, since Zainab cannot visit him for fear of being deported herself. Walter puts his life on hold and generously hires Mr. Shah (Amir Arison), an immigration lawyer, to defend Tarek. But the attorney -- whose own uncle was deported after raising a family in the United States -- is hardly optimistic.

Concerned that she hasn't heard from Tarek for some time, his mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), journeys to New York. Walter breaks the news to her and, as the two of them join forces to cope with the arbitrary policies of the for-profit detention center where Tarek is being held, they form a gentle romantic bond.

Writer-director Tom McCarthy's affecting film makes its political point with intelligence, subtle humor and a deep sense of compassion. He effectively portrays the impersonal, morally indifferent system that eventually manages to trap, in different ways, both Tarek and Walter: a soulless world of anonymous buildings, florescent lights, poured concrete walls and petty, easily threatened bureaucrats.

The film contains implied cohabitation and a few expletives uttered under extreme duress. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops