Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

Thomas McCarthy? Dig him.

Richard Jenkins? Really dig him?

Capone? Sure... I dig him, too.

Put ‘em together, and I think it’s safe to say that I dig this review, and I hope to catch up to this film soon, since I missed it when it screened here in LA. I was really looking forward to it, too. It looks great.

Actor-writer-director Thomas McCarthy (perhaps best known as the Baltimore Sun reporter who makes up his stories in the final season of HBO's "The Wire") made a little miracle of a film five years ago called THE STATION AGENT, a film that took me completely off guard and one that I still marvel at when I stumble upon it on cable. Nothing about that film feels phony, and McCarthy moves from scene to scene so gracefully that it's tough to believe an actual script exists for the film. The film is not about plot twists or big ideas; it's a simple story about a small handful of characters simply existing in each other's lives and becoming better people as a result. With his latest work, THE VISITOR, McCarthy has done exactly the same thing, perhaps even more so and done it to such perfection that I'm chomping at the bit waiting for the rest of you to see this marvelous film about loneliness, connection and a firm belief that it's never too late to change your life for the better.

Richard Jenkins (the dead father on "Six Feet Under") plays Walter Vale, a professor who keeps an apartment in New York City that he never visits or lives in. When he's asked at the last minute to fill in for a colleague at a conference in NYC, he's resistant but does his duty assuming he'll stay in this apartment he's clearly been avoiding for many years. When he gets there, he discovers a young couple (Haaz Sleiman as Tarek and Danai Jekesai Gurira as Zainab) living there, and he finds out that someone has duped them into thinking the apartment was for rent. The normally closed-off Walter allows the couple (whom he suspects are illegal immigrants) to stay until they find another place, and ends up becoming particularly close to Tarek, who makes a decent living as an African drummer in a jazz band. After Walter finishes up his duties at the conference, he decides to stick around New York and rediscover it through the eyes and activities of his new roommates. Jenkins plays Walter as a man who was clearly capable of great emotion, and for some reason has shut himself off after some great tragedy that is eventually revealed. Through this young couple, the real passionate Walter begins to resurface, and he even picks up Tarek's drum in a slightly embarrassing but spirited attempt to tap out a few verses.

Just as Walter is settling into his new and exciting life, Tarek is arrested for jumping a subway turnstile, and it is discovered that he's illegally in the country. Soon he's in a holding cell in an INS compound, and Walter is determined to get him out. The striking Hiam Abbass (Munich) plays Tarek's mother Mouna, who arrives after not hearing from her son for many days, and soon the two are waging a campaign to get Tarek released. At the same time, Walter is waging his own campaign to win Mouna's heart. (Okay, I made that sound utterly cheesy; the film is in no way that cheesy.)

THE VISITOR is so alive and interesting that you can't help feeling close to these characters. McCarthy is perhaps giving us his two cents on this country's treatment of immigrants, but this is in no way a message film (it certainly doesn't play out like one). Its real purpose is to put us inside Walter's mind and heart, and show us what's at stake in his world if this small community around him is disbanded. The movie also reminds us that not all life changes are necessarily giant steps taken all at once. In most cases, the movements are so small you don't even notice them happening until you've arrived at a new place. This is the same process he revealed to us with THE STATION AGENT, and he captures it again here. My immediate reaction upon seeing THE VISITOR was, "Where the hell did that come from, and may I have some more please?" If you're one of those fine folks who loves a small, but transcendent work to discover and turn other people onto, you've found your movie.

Capone