The Visitor

We watched a movie on my dad's laptop last night called The Visitor.  I highly recommend you see it.

It's the fictional story of a Connecticut college professor who is widowed, depressed, and ineffective.  He goes down to NYC to present at a conference, and when he walks into his NYC apartment, he finds a young couple unexpectedly living there - the man is a musician from Syria, and the woman is a jewelry maker from Senegal.  The professor ends up becoming friends with them and goes through all kinds of heartbreak as he enters their lives and feels their hardships as he learns about their lives as illegal immigrants.  For those of you interested in "morality ratings", I can tell you that there are swear words used in two different scenes, although they are definitely not used gratuitously, and other than that, there are not really any suggestive scenes or nudity or violence.  It is a pretty clean movie, and it delves into issues of morality regarding discrimination, ignorance, and immigration in the US.  It is not political at all - it is a look inside people.  The ending is hard to watch - it is not just or tidy, and there are lots of unanswered questions.  The end is definitely unsatisfying, but it makes the most sense that way.  You have to think about the reality of various possible outcomes yourself, and I think the ending honors the many people whose lives mirror the characters' lives in real life.

Bottom line: you should go out and watch it now.