Life is Not a Movie

My first thought when The Visitor showed up from Netflix (I tend to forget about movies I add to Netflix and they show up and I have no idea what they are) was that it was a horror movie but it’s anything but.

The Basics: A lonely man by the name of Walter comes back to his New York apartment that he hadn’t been to in a while to find a couple staying there. It turns out that they were led to believe by a con-man that this was a furnished apartment for rent. Walter initially askes them to leave but when he realizes they have nowhere to go he invites them to stay.

The Good: There are so many good things about this film I don’t even know where to begin. The main character played by Richard Jenkins (you might know him from Six Feet Under) was such a wonderfully understated character that somehow you could feel every emotion he was feeling at every moment. I just adored the other characters especially Tarek (played by Haaz Sleiman) who had this personality that just lit up the screen and was such a genuine character and the mother (played by Hiam Abbass) who I just fell in love with. I wasn’t sure about the girlfriend Zainab (played by Danai Jekesai Gurira) at first but I realized she was just very untrusting for good reasons. Everything about this movie was really wonderful.

The Bad: There was nothing I didn’t like about this movie but some people might find it too slow. I liked the pace though, it moved in a very smooth direction.

Bored? Or would you prefer?

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009, 8:22 am   |   Reviews  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback