I Finally Paid a Visit to The Visitor

I don't have a lot to say about The Visitor at the moment, but here are a few notes anyway:

• It would obviously make a great double feature with Ramin Bahrani's new film Goodbye Solo, but only because it's another film about a sad old man and a happy-go-lucky immigrant.
• Though Richard Jenkins is great, as always, I am surprised he got the Oscar nomination. He's better here than Eastwood in Gran Torino, but I'd still have wished for Josh Brolin in W. instead. I kinda prefer to appreciate Jenkins as the character actor who's more intense and more enjoyable in last year's Step Brothers.
• The scene that really sums the film, or the subject of immigration at least, up nicely is the scene on the Staten Island Ferry, when Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira) points out the triangle of immigration, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the empty space where the World Trade Center used to be.