What is it about The Visitor that hangs around in your head for so long? I found myself thinking about the movie on and off for weeks after I watched it. I was much taken by how the two illegal immigrants would take the boat to Staten Island just to be able to view the Statute of Liberty. It is such a powerful symbol of democracy and freedom and yet very few people actually get to experience that; it has become seriously corroded.
In some ways this was a brave film to make because it looks at the face of young illegal immigrants to this country a topic for which there seems to be no middle ground. You are either for or against. But the movie manages very skillfully to humanize the issue and we root for the two young protagonists in the hope that they reach their quest for freedom and democracy. To bad that it is not to be!
It is also a wonderful film of opposites; Family versus single occupancy living; communal music versus singular music, and love and friendship versus just existing. Richard Jenkins was terrific as a middle aged, washed-up professor, as was Haaz Sleiman the optimistic, young Syrian musician hoping for a better life in America.
For me it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
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