The Visitor, written and directed by Tom McCarthy, was a surprisingly good film. It is a deeply moving movie about Walter, played by Richard Jenkins, who was a widowed college professor living a depressed and aimless life, until he unexpectedly found a couple living in his New York apartment when on a business trip. The couple, Tarek and Zainab, were illegal immigrants victimized in a reality scam where they payed rent to someone who didn’t own the apartment. Walter allowed the couple to stay in his apartment with him because they seemed to have no where else to go. This situation forces Walter to deal with issues related to immigration, identity, and cross-cultural communication. While they were living with him he ended up bonding with them and found some compassion and positive changes in his life.
Walter’s deceased wife was an excellent piano player, and Walter attempted with much frustration to learn the piano. During his time in New York Walter finally decides to give up playing the piano and he takes up a new instrument which he is much more talented and compassionate about, the drums. Tarek gives Walter drumming lessons and Walter loves his new instrument. Walter and Tarek seem to from a connection and friendship through the music. The drumming acts as a medium of communication across the two cultures. During the short time that Walter lived with Tarek and Zainab he changes substantially. He seemed to finally start getting over the death of his deceased wife and he starts to be more kind and enjoy life more.
Zainab used a great amount of body language to express how she felt. At first her body language was negative and slightly hesitant towards Walter. After she got to know him better her body language seemed to become more positive towards him.
Tarek is a very kind and generous musician from Syria, making a living by playing his African drums. Zainab, who is from Senegal, sells handmade jewelry at a little booth in the street to make a living. A person buying some of her jewelry at their stand was asking her where she was from. When Zainab told her that she was from Senegal, the lady said “ohh, that’s so neat! I have been to Cape Town before, what a beautiful area!” Cape Town and Senegal are thousands of mile away from each other and are very different. This seem shows the true ignorance of a typical United States citizen.
The film made me more aware of some of the hardships that foreigners face here in the United States. It also made me more aware of how many of United States citizens are very ignorant about how immigration and deportation goes about here and about what it would be like to be a foreigner.
One evening rushing through the subway, Tarek gets stuck in the entrance and climbs over the bar. Even though he can show his paid ticket stub he is arrested.
The police found out that he was an illegal immigrant and he was put into detention. Walter, who before meeting Tarek and Zainab was not know for his senticitivitfy towards others, but in the case of Tarek getting arrested he does everything he can to try to help him. Unlike the sadness Walter faced from because his wife, the grief that he experiences from this situation opens him up to others, to the difficulties of people he has never noticed, and opens his moral horizons. He continues to visit Tarek in jail and even hires an immigration lawyer to help Tarek. Zaneb has moved to her cousins house. When arrested, Tarek seems to be more concerned with Zainab and his mothers welfare, and even Walter's drumming lessons, than he is with his own dire situation. Tarek’s mother and Zaneb can't visit him because they are both here illegally.
Tarek’s beautiful mother shows up a few days after the arrest because Tarek has not been returning her phone calls. Walter invites her to stay in his apartment and she accepts and stays in Tarek’s old room. Walter and her start dating and comfort each other during their unsuccessful attempts to prevent Tarek from being deported.
It is devastating when Tarek is deported to Walter, Zainab, and Tarek’s mother. Tarek’s mother decides to go back to Syria to make sure that he is okay, knowing that she will never be able to return. People are deported by the judges from the United States relentlessly, with what seems to be very little compassion or concern for the people being deported.
This movie, The Visitor, helps break the stereotypes that are associated with Arabs. It challenges the judgment that Arabs are terrorists, by letting us get to know some Arabs that are very kind and loving people.
Both The Visitor and the movie Farmingville that we have been watching in class have brought up the issue of illegal immigrants and deportation. There are very good reasons on both sides of the arguments around deportation. In The Visitor, the lawyer made it seem like it would be almost impossible for Tarek to get to stay in the United States, and that there wasn’t much time, energy, or compassion put into his case from the governments side in considering if he should be allowed to stay or not. There are several reasons why the people in the movie Farmingville wanted the illegal mexican immigrants in their town to be deported: One of the Farmingville residents shared that she thought it was necessary that all the people in the town should be in a government record so that if they do something bad they can be prosecuted, which is a valid point. Many of the Farmingville residents feel that the illegal immigrants are dangerous and should be deported, which may be a valid point, or may be stereotypes and racism. They also had a valid point that many of them lived thirty to a house, which seemed to create some problems in the neighborhood. But there are arguments from the other side as well that seem just as valid, if not more so. It typically cost just as much, if not more, to deport illegal immigrants as it cost for them to stay. It is also very difficult to keep them from just coming back. Also, there is usually a good reason for them to be in the states anyways, and that should be put into consideration.
The film The Visitor only takes an inside view on the topic of deportation and illegal immigrants. From the perspectives of all the main characters in the film, Tarek was deported unjustly. The Visitor does not share the views of any outsiders, like Farmingville does. The film makes the viewer love Tarek before the deportation process, which gives the viewer a perspective on what it would be like to have someone that their are close to go through. I think that if the people in the film Farmingville could empathize with the people that they are trying to get deported then they would feel that they deserve to stay and would try to help the live better lives instead of harassing and avoiding them.
All in all, The Visitor was a great movie. It was mind opening in many different aspects, including; immigration policies, illegal immigrants, the ignorance of United States civilians, communication styles in different people, and in breaking the stereotypes of Arabs as well as illegal immigrants. I found this to be a entertaining and somewhat educational film. I recommend it to everyone to watch.
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