Richard, the Quietheart

Most likely inspired by the beautiful performance of Richard Jenkins in one of the best, most poignant American films of the last 20 years, the Visitor, President Barack Obama intends to rid the United States immigrant detention system of its cold steel execution and reform them into centers of "civil detention." What that means is anyone's guess. More certain however is the rich and varied career of character acting by veteran Richard Jenkins. Prior to his Oscar-nomination last year for Best Actor in the Visitor, like most audiences, I was mainly aware of his supporting work in a few of the Coen Bros. films and as the deceased, but forever lingering patriarch of the Fisher family in Six Feet Under. His work in that series, done primarily through flashbacks and soulful or imagined conversation, allowed Jenkins to let loose a range of emotion. In the Visitor, he is front and center and at all times brilliant. Jenkins plays Walter, a Connecticut professor locked in a self-imposed social daze for the past 20 or so years. When asked by his university to give a presentation on a book he supposedly co-authored at a conference in New York City, Walter accepts, but only because his job is on the line. Once there, he befriends two illegal immigrants who've unknowingly claimed residence in Walter's apartment. What follows is Walter's re-awakening to the world around him and a critical eye of immigrant detention. The film never betrays its story or characters or its reality, and is very much in sync with films like Half Nelson or director Thomas McCarthy's previous effort, the Station Agent. The main characters in each speak softly but carry very heavy burdens. Inevitably, their loads prove too laborious, leading to an implosion of ideals thought left for dead. Near the end of the Visitor, Jenkins has his moment and spills his anger like a glass of milk, making previous scenes, like this exchange, all the more urgent.