THE VISITOR

A widowed college professor from Connecticut becomes involved in the lives of a young immigrant couple when he finds they have been tricked into illegally renting his New York city apartment. This film is marked by its simple, effective dialogue and an understated tone of storytelling, but this quietness of tone pays massive dividends when we are presented with moments of high tension and those instances of genuine, human connection between characters. Less is definitely more in the case of The Visitor, and it moves along at a nice pace without needing to be a dramatic, emotional thrill-piece. The subject of illegal immigration, post 9/11, is shown to be an increasingly complex and pressing issue, and the film is politically charged in that respect, but primarily this is a film about people from different worlds connecting with each other. (Michael Farrell)