THE VISITOR

I'll be honest. Haaz Sleiman kinda turns me on. You may have seen him in one episode of "Veronica Mars." Or in a handful from Jack Bauer-dominated "24." He's got an infectious smile, and when I watched him playing the drums during the Thomas McCarthy-directed indy feature THE VISITOR, I liked pretending he was smiling right at me, perhaps even propositioning me for a pants-free music lesson. But not even his rhythmic prowess was enough to make me weep for his plight in this movie.

I saw it last Monday at the westside Landmark, who unfortunately has chosen to raise its fee for the chance to sit in its obviously luxury car-inspired leather seats. So perhaps I went into the picture a mite surly at having parted with twelve bucks when I was expecting to drop ten. But everyone else in my group got over this slight annoyance and was sobbing into Kleenex (my, they came prepared) about halfway into the film. Me: dry-eyed. Me: not feeling it. Me: soulless bitch? Not usually.

See, the story in short is this: illegal drum-playing immigrant who is otherwise harmless is interned and threatened with deportation. Girlfriend can't save him, as she is also illegal. So old professor man tries to save him. Mother tries to save him. Much drum-playing ensues. Without trying to spoil the film for you if you haven't and want to see it, I must say that (SPOILER ALERT!) Sleiman's character Tarek, and even his mother and girlfriend, make this big hoopla about how he's done "nothing wrong," about how he's an innocent cog of the system that definitely shouldn't be deported, because he's not a criminal. And in general, I agree, but...not really. You see, the trouble with the government is that if they say, tomorrow, that wearing white before Labor Day is not only in bad taste but also illegal, but you decide to don the blanche, and they arrest you...who's wrong? You've officially broken the law. And I don't want to dwell much on my opinions about immigration laws, but (SPOILER ALERT!) I think there's more than the US government to blame.

This movie pitted Bad-Guy Government against Good-Guy Immigrant without making a case beyond Tarek's good drum-playing to convince us (or me, rather) that he was a "good guy." He was a struggling musician. He wasn't supporting anyone's life but his own. He forgot to help his girlfriend with her work. In short, he wasn't a hero. Give me a hero, and I'll cry. I promise. I cried during TARZAN.

plot: An immigrant deserves rights, too!
thought: Too righteous to be appreciated.
in five: 2/5
saving grace: The last shot in the entire film is a beautiful ender. You'll have to sit through almost two hours to get to it though!

the film: http://www.thevisitorfilm.com/