From: Kong's Krapola
Date: 31 Mar 2009
Time: 04:08:23
Remote Name: 63.239.248.1
I just finished watching this film and I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly why I enjoyed it. Predictability is one of my usual complaints, and this film was fairly easy to predict, but it wasn't mediocre like most predictable films.
I think it's just a beautiful story, beautifully written and acted. I connected to the main character deeply. I felt myself wanting things for him, wanting the story to progress toward his happiness. This only happens for me with a well-written character played by a great actor. Kudos and standing ovations to Richard Jenkins for his brilliant performance in this film.
It's funny too, as much as I hate the obligatory happy ending of mainstream American melodrama, I kind of miss it when it's gone. It's like you can't have it both ways. You can either have your cheap, phony fantasy movies with obstacles overcome, enemies bested and beautiful women lived happily ever after with, or, you can have deeply moving, highly artistic films with sometimes sad, realistic endings. I'll just have to accept those kind of endings because I'm puke sick of formula-driven mainstream crap.
The Visitor is somewhat a political movie too. I didn't feel that it was really rubbing our noses in illegal immigration issues but the film did feel pretty one-sided in that regard.
It's funny though, I didn't really feel too sorry for Tarek, the young man who was deported. His attitude was somewhat entitled and juvenile. He was full of indignance because he felt he hadn't done anything wrong. Immigration laws are there for a reason and he did break them, therefore he did do something wrong. It's the same thing I've heard all my life from illegal immigrants and their sympathizers, that we shouldn't be telling them they can't live here, or that we should pity them because they come here to escape oppression and poverty, which is mostly a myth. I know from working along side enough illegals that they rarely ever come here out of necessity, they almost always come here because when the dollars they earn here are converted to the currency of their home country it's a lot of money, and they only need to work part of the year if they want to and then they can return home and live off their savings for the rest of it. Or they can invest in property and businesses back home with their earnings and do quite well.
I try to put myself in their shoes, what would it be like if there were someplace I could earn a hundred bucks an hour sweeping floors and emptying garbage, would I go there without papers, cheating all the honest people waiting to get in legally? Would I feel cheated myself if they arrested me and sent me back?
I mean, hell, Canadian dollars are worth more than American dollars right now, and they have state-run health care! Do I deserve to be there just because Canadians currently have it better than I do? Sweden is supposedly the best place to live in the world, so do I therefore deserve to be there too if I choose, even though I don’t have permission?
I suppose it's possible the director meant for us to not feel pity for Tarek. Maybe that was his way of showing both sides of the issue. Or maybe the political aspect of the film was really just incidental, maybe it was just the vehicle for the story and didn’t necessarily represent the writers views on the subject. I can’t be sure, it’s a good enough film that it isn’t obvious. I really do like films that make me have to wonder about such things.
I can’t say I would watch this film a second time. I don’t feel like I could get much more out of it from a second viewing. But it was well worth watching once and I'll be recommending it to family and friends.
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