A remarkable story ... a college professor recently widowed, with a career no longer exciting, drifting through life, going through piano teachers in an effort to learn the piano, but to no avail, suddenly thrust into a drama of incredible proportions.
Played by Richard Jenkins, perfectly cast for the role, the story unfolds so unexpectedly, as does Professor Walter Vale's heart. A cool, detached man - not really heartless, but with terribly low blood pressure, if you will, teaching the same course for years in a Connecticut college, now in New York City for a conference to read a paper he didn't write. When he opens the door to his city apartment - where he's not been in months, it's apparent someone is living there, and that's the beginning of a new chapter in his life.
Even as I write these words, they might suggest some kind of a fairy tale, but no fairy tale here, just the reality of lives unexpectedly intertwined, with subtle political commentary: after 911, this country has become a cruel place for immigrants, illegal or otherwise. The mother of a young man in detention headed for deportation says, "This is just like Syria." What with our Guantanamo Bay and acceptance of torture, we have lost our bearings. I still believe that America has reservoirs of goodness and greatness, but like reservoirs in Georgia, without replenishment, the levels are dropping.
This is a tale of woe - a poignant reminder that everyone is a person, and many of the so-called "illegals" are caught up in economic and/or political currents from which they're seeking escape. On a Staten Island Ferry ride, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, the film reminds without being preachy that our greatness is to be found in acceptance and openness.
As I watched the story unfold, I kept asking myself, "How can this nation recover its balance?"
After 911, we responded, neither with dignity nor wisdom befitting a great nation but with the craven and fearful posturing of a nation without integrity, a feigned greatness created by millitary prowess rather than political wisdom. Bush and Gang played the fear card again and again, trumping every hand played by anyone else. And too many Americans bought into it, too many who love their "way of life," and will destroy anything and anyone who seemingly poses a threat, forgetting that we're all in this together, seduced by the bump and grind of war.
It's a powerful story, well acted for all.
Danai Jekesai Gurira, Hiam Abbass, and Haaz Sleiman give stellar performances.
I loved the photography (Oliver Bokelberg), and hats off to the editor (Tom McArdle).
The film ends as it should - not happily, but folks making the best of a hard time. The professor and the boy's mother say farewell in the airport, she on her way back to Syria to be with her son, he goes to the subway with his drum (you'll have to see the film to learn how a staid professor becomes a drummer), and there in the subway, begins to drum, something the young man, now deported, always wanted to do.
Life goes on, both richer and poorer for love experienced, love given, and love lost.
Humorous without being comedic, poignant without being syrupy, political without being preachy, this is an extraordinary film.
For a fine review, see the June 3 Christian Century.
