If someone would have told me before seeing this film that it was a film about conviction, a film about love, a film about politics, or even a film about how easily life can change I wouldn’t have believed them. The Visitor accomplishes such a feat by following an aging widower for a short period of time, a period of time that undoubtedly changed the course of his life. There seemed to be nothing remarkable about this man’s life, his home, his job, or his friends. His life seemed very ordinary, and apart from a desire to learn to play the piano it didn’t seem like things were going to change anytime soon.
Walter Vale, the main character in the film didn’t seem very pleased with his life or the direction it was headed. To say that there are a lot of people with that same level of apathy with their lives would be an understatement. The film seemed very real and applicable from the beginning. Many people find themselves alone, bored with their lives, bored with work and don’t have anything that could resemble a social life. Walter wasn’t making any changes anytime soon and he seemed okay with that, so one can imagine his frustration when he was forced into the city to return to an apartment flooded with memories to do work he despised. Little did he know what awaited him and his life. Changes and the unanticipated can be fierce and greatly unexpected; perhaps that is why they can have such a strong positive or negative effect.
Tarek and Zainab are a couple in love, I can’t think of another way to describe their relationship. The two are artists, masters of their individual crafts and that only confirms to me of their ability to feel, to care, and ultimately to love. In the film the couple has been given this great opportunity to be in a land where their talents are appreciated and America has given them the ability to live together in peace and happiness. By the time Tarek and Zainab are introduced in the film Walter Vale has already found the two illegally renting his city apartment, the two are forced to the streets. This encounter begins a cascade of events that includes Tarek and Zainab returning to stay at the apartment with Walter and the development of relationships between Walter and the couple on a very personal basis.
Walter finds himself surrounded by new colors, new sounds, new people, and new feelings. Walter embraces the change and friendships are born. It is a very emotional connection that is forged by Walter’s ability to accept something different, something foreign. The ability or virtue to completely change one’s inner self in order to make room for something better or something sweeter is a great attribute. Walter’s position in life was comfortable; it was of a certain dynamic that could be anticipated. Walter opened his heart, he was reminded how to love, how to connect and it changed him for the better.
Sometimes in order to fully comprehend how much we love some one or some thing we have to lose it. Tarek’s presence in the film, in Zenaib’s life, and in Walter’s life changed after his arrest an eventual deportation. Tarek’s mother and Walter displayed the love they had for Tarek. Tarek’s mother stood by Walter’s side has he did all that was in his power legally and politically to return Tarek’s freedom. The two held each other, they cried together, and forged a very beautiful relationship. The love Tarek’s mother had for her son was so great that she forfeited her citizenship to return and be at her son’s side. Walter was left to look back on his experience and celebrate his newly formed relationships by taking his newly acquired talent of drumming and displaying it for many to see.
It is hard to agree with sending such an influential soul that is Tarek’s out of a country that could use his sweet spirit. It was an issue that Walter was not ready to face. Walter had no idea that his time as a visitor in Tarek’s, Zeniab’s, and Mouna’s life would be so short yet so influential. Maybe it’s time for more people to look for inspiration in places where they would never thing to look. Maybe it’s time for many to take a visit, embrace some change, learn to love, and do everything possible to ensure that change becomes a part of everyday life. It was a simple act of service that Walter made in allowing the couple to stay and it was that act of service that ultimately changed Walter’s life.
