"The Visitor" is fabulous. Richard Jenkins was nominated for an Academy Award, and that I can't remember who won that year is testament to this statement: I think he was robbed.
The plot revolves around the visitor, and it is the audience's job to figure out who the visitor is.
Jenkins plays a lifeless college economics professor, whose life stopped when his wife died - maybe before. She was a classical pianist, which we find out only by inference, and his pitiful attempt to learn to play the piano is also his pitiful attempt to continue the life he knew. His life is interrupted when he visits his flat in the Village in New York only to find squatters living there. His integration with their lives and the reawakening of his life is the meat of the story. His and theirs are great stories.
The movie does not have much dialogue, but it doesn't need much. The actors tell their stories without saying too much. They also make great music, which I love.
One sub-plot deals with how illegal immigration is handled by our country. One of the characters, the mother of one of the major characters, says, "This is just like Syria." That should give us all pause. Is there an easy answer to this issue? Probably not. But we all should realize that any story has more than one side.
See it now. Netflix has it. So do I.
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