The Visitor

This weekend I finally watched Tom McCarthy's The Visitor. In the beginning of the film I was very intrigued by and curious about the Richard Jenkin's character of Walter Vale. I actually found myself saying, "What's his deal?" out loud. Vale is a college professor in Connecticut who has to go to New York for a conference. Not having been at his New York City apartment in years, he returns to find two strangers living in his apartment. These strangers are illegal immigrants named Tarek and Zainab. Vale allows them to stay at his apartment and begins to form a friendship with Tarek that begins with learning to play his drum. Vale goes from a somewhat uninvolved, dare I say boring, professor (which I could not tell if he was this way before his wife's death) to a more cheerful, although awkward at times, confident man. He becomes assertive through his struggle to help Tarek after he is arrested a discovered to be an illegal alien from Syria.

The Visitor raised questions about the way illegal immigrants are treated in the United States. It sheds light on the fact that they are human beings, too, but are more than often not treated as so.

This film was definitely different from a mass culture experience. It targeted a smaller audience, and did not hold the central values that encompass those of a film made for mass culture. This film was for a subculture of people that enjoy movies like Shop Girl, Lost in Translation and Taxi Driver. The Visitor focused more on the inner changes the main character goes through as opposed to developing the plot more. This does not make the film's values negative, though. In fact, I enjoyed that aspect. It is nice to see something different than main stream movies that all have similar plot developments and structures. If the movie were trying to have a "Hollywood ending" then Vale would have asked Mouna to marry him. This could have resulted in citizenship for Tarek and possible love for Vale -- killing two stereotypical movie ending birds with one stone. Obv The Visitor would not go over well with a conservative audience, due to the questions it raises about the emigration policies of the United States. Overall, two thumbs up.. Well played, McCarthy.

weird

Brian Jonestown Massacre is....in....a.... Target commercial? What?

The day Travis and I didn't leave the couch.

It's hour 12 into my Spring break and after waking up to realize there is now a punching bag hanging from our ceiling (which was definitely not there yesterday), I've come to the conclusion that Travis and I aren't going to get off of our respective seats on the couch. Which led me to hop on the blog wagon for no other reason than boredom. As of now, you will probably never find anything very introspective in this, so if that is what you're looking for, you came to the wrong spot.

Anyway, I'm thinking if this keeps up Trav and I might end up in a situation like this woman: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpMo5pdCnadyrY2ypTwfBfsPFxQwD8VC22HO0. We've been here since one in the afternoon and have managed to make it up to make pasta and biscuits, attempt laundry, and get some 40s out of the fridge.

Until then....