The Visitor is a welcome distraction

Thomas McCarthy's follow-up to The Station Agent is a fable of generosity and human fellow-feeling breaking through coldness and suspicion. In its low-key way it's as manipulative and sporadically improbable as any blockbuster. But it wears its angry liberal conscience on its sleeve and is both surprising and moving.

Economics professor Walter (Richard Jenkins), emotionally neutered by bereavement, discovers - surprise! - a young Syrian drummer and his Senegalese girlfriend living in his unused New York apartment. They are failed asylum seekers, he sunny and full of life, she watchful and fragile.

They seem to have asked no questions when shadily "subletting" this swanky apartment, and Walter similarly avoids even the most cursory enquiry into their status before deciding to let them stay. And he learns to live again, first when Tarek starts to teach him to drum, and second when Tarek is arrested and threatened with deportation.

While watching this smiley, nonwhite character teaching this uptight WASP to unbend - by giving him rhythm, no less - I was reminded of those pictures of embarrassed policemen dancing with big Caribbean women at the Notting Hill Carnival. But beyond this vestigial stereotyping, there's a wise and timely message here: that not every beige face is a terrorist, that America (like Britain) grew by opening its arms to immigrants.

And it takes on not just racism, but ageism. Jenkins has long been relegated to character parts by his age, thin lips and hairline, but McCarthy shows the handsome man emerging from the bloodless professor. Especially in his scenes with Hiam Abass, the ravishing Israeli actress playing Tarek's mother.

It's a low-key film, and it avoids several easy outcomes. Indeed, the final image is one of optimism tinged with rage. Which sent me out uplifted into a wet afternoon.

The Visitor is on general release.

The Visitor
Cert: 15