"A+" Rating by Robert W. Hammerle

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins in an Oscar worthy performance) is a bored Connecticut college professor emotionally dead to the world. Each day, he retreats to his home with a bottle of red wine and little else. In that regard, his character is very similar to Dennis Quaid's professor in this year's very likable "Smart People."

Walter owns an apartment in New York that he has clearly not visited in a long time. Forced from his melancholy to attend a conference in New York, he decides to hole up there for a few days. Little does Walter know how much his life is about to be transformed when he discovers a lovable immigrant couple living in his apartment.

Upon learning that they have no where else to stay, Walter invites the couple to remain until they can make other arrangements. This simple act of kindness and consideration sets Walter on a road where he learns to live again.

As Walter interacts with Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), an immigrant from Syria, and his girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira), an immigrant from Senegal, he discovers that Tarek is a musician who plays the African drum. The scenes where Tarek teaches the reluctant Walter to play the drum are warm, humorous moments of movie magic.

In particular, look for a scene where Tarek takes Walter to a park where they join other musicians in an impromptu performance. Just as a caterpillar metamorphosizes into a beautiful butterfly, Walter is mesmerizing as he emerges from his self-made sterile cocoon and loses himself in his drum playing.

However, as you can tell from the previews, Tarek and Zainab are not just immigrants, they are illegal ones. Tarek's arrest and incarceration by American Immigration Services forces Walter to once again care for someone other than himself for the first time since the death of his beloved wife.

It is at the moment where our trio is most desperate that Tarek's mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), comes into Walter's life. Their evolving, arms length relationship is both tender and heartbreaking. As they are left to contemplate the inevitably of Tarek's fate, an intimacy develops between the two that is as touching as it is transcendent.

Above all this movie is a damming indictment of the way the United States Government has treated immigrants in this country since 9/11. As also reflected in this year's other stunning film, "Under the Same Moon," we have allowed the immigration debate to be dominated by such blow hards and demagogues as Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh and their political surrogates in Congress.

As shown in this extraordinary film and "Under the Same Moon," the reality is that millions of people have entered this country at great risk and sacrifice solely to try and build a better life. Their reward has been to be both demonized by our political process and to live in daily fear of being taken into custody, ripped from their families and possibly deported.

We Americans should feel ashamed of ourselves. While these hard working people try to hold down a job and keep their families together, most of us sit quietly by while politicians like Senator Delph here in Indiana sponsor legislation that make it all but impossible for them to receive a driver's license, much less hold down a job.

Meanwhile, we force these immigrants to remain underground where they are repeatedly victimized by their employers and criminal elements of society. This is appalling and has to change.

As referred to above, the ensemble cast in this film is truly sensational beyond words. Mr. Jenkins (many of you will remember him as the dead father in HBO's hit mini series "Six Feet Under") is brilliant. The scene where he finally explodes at the detention center when discovering Tarek's fate is so powerful that it would be a monumental crime not to remember this performance when Oscar season rolls around.

Futhermore, Ms. Abbass, as a mother who must choose between leaving her adopted homeland to find her son or stay with a man she clearly loves, should not be forgotten during the award's season either.

Once in a great while a near perfect film arrives on the big screen. Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor" is one of those films. Like his earlier treasure, "The Station Agent" (2003), the story is simple and concise, while its emotional impact is overwhelming. It is real, devastating, uplifting and politically relevant. It is a film of consequence.