Long time. The Visitor, and more to come.

I cannot say enough about this movie! It reminds me of Babel, but in a less circular mannner. For the plot you have to take one huge leap of faith, but from that point on you are well seated for a good ride. This film chronicles the life of down and out professor ( haven’t we all had a few of those!) whose reason to live has disappeared after the death of his wife.  The Professor (Richard Jenkins, from Six Feet Under) is asked to go to conference where he finds some squatters, Tarek and Zainab, the unfortunate victims of scam.

The decision to allow them to stay changes the course of his life forever.  The movie is not a quicked paced movie, and it never claims to be. I don’t think that that this film would have worked if has been cut down any more. For me, I felt as i I was connected with professor, and his emotion changed slowly. In turn, so did mine.  The Visitor would not be the same if it had not been for Tarek’s mother played by Hiam Abass (from the Syrian Bride [another great film you should see!])  . You feel her energy wanted to push through, but she hides it all behind her eyes.  I think her energy mixes nicely with that of Jenkins slow contemplated-ness (I am not sure if that it is a word but I just made it nonetheless!). We cannot forget the music though, which to me is the driving force of the film. The music director of this film must have had great taste because he takes two different worlds, classical and AfroPop drumming, and mixes them so seamingly you make the tranisition clearly. The music most prominetly featured in the film is that of Kela Futi. His rythmns and tamber push the scenes forward.  I think the best way to describe is image a boat surrounded by frozen water, and then it slowly starts to push this icey lake that is what the music does for this film.  The film takes a sudden twist near the end with Tarek’s arrest, as undocumented alien. To much more than this is spoiler so that is all I shay say about this great film! I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I did, and if you didn’t let me know why!