Richard Jenkins (the father in Six Feet Under) starred in a movie a few years ago called The Visitor. I watched it again last week and loved it even more than the first time around.
Jenkins plays a college professor whose life has shriveled to the point that he's almost robotic in his teaching, his routines, and his dealings with people. Then he meets a young couple, immigrants who have taken up residence in his house without his knowledge. His life changes from the encounter.
He befriends the young Syrian man who teaches him to play the djembe. Music and the friendship are like transfusions of joie de vivre into a formerly deadened existence. Unfortunately, things do not turn out so well for the Syrian man.
In the light of threatened deportations by the new administration, the movie was particularly poignant as it depicted the humanity of people who had come to this country to build new lives, yet lived under the constant cloud of having to leave.
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