Ken and Cindy got here yesterday and it was a lazy-ish day as they adjusted to the time zone and to taking the red-eye here from Hawaii.  I was, of course, still mostly sedentary although we did manage to get in my longest walk since surgery.  Go team!

One of the fun things about hanging out with Ken and Cindy is that they love movies as much as I do.  I was definitely ready for a movie of stronger fare than I had last week (watching old favorites and enjoying Space Chimps is fine in its way but sometimes a new, challenging film is called for.)

We found just the ticket in the movie, The Visitor.  I had previously seen bits of this movie while flying across country...with the sound off and only intermittent viewing, it didn't appear to be much of a film.

But with the sound on, with the full texture and nuance of characters presented by a uniformly talented cast, this film is truly a jewel of a story.  Richard Jenkins, an easily recognized character actor, has the lead as a widowed professor who finds squatters living in his New York apartment and forms an unlikely friendship with them.  To tell you any more about the moving plot would be to deprive you of the experience of the film's unfolding.

Jenkins was nominated for a SAG award for his role.  In my opinion, any of the other characters in the film's small cast would also be worthy of nomination.  The actors are: Haaz Sleiman as the young, drum-playing squatter, Daina Gurira as his girlfriend, and the luminous Hiam Abbass as the drummer's mother.  If you haven't already seen this film, buy it for yourself for Christmas.  It is rich with meaning, thick with craft and a film you will see again and again.

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