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The follow-up to Tom McCarthy's award winning directorial debut The Station Agent, The Visitor is a story that continues to explore some of the same themes of unlikely friendship, the value of community, and the life-giving power of connection. The unlikely friends are Walter (Richard Jenkins), a middle-aged Economics professor; Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a young Syrian drummer; Zainab (Danai Gurira), Tarek's Sengalese girlfriend; and Mouna (Hiam Abbass), Tarek's mother. They merge into one community when Walter comes to New York City for a conference and finds Tarek and Zainab living in his apartment. As music pulls them closer together, we see how community has a way of bringing people alive. And as the legal system threatens to tear them apart, we see that when we are truly awake to what it means to live, our lives cannot help but be filled with their own vibrant rhythms as we both reach out for the connections that make life what it is and fight against the injustice that threatens to tear them apart.

But for everyone like me who absolutely loves The Station Agent, I must tell you that The Visitor is also quite different. While The Station Agent tells a story built around nothing other than the role of friendship in the fairly uneventful daily lives of its main characters, The Visitor has an agenda, a story that drives it, and a point that it is clearly trying to make. The issue that it calls to the table is immigration and deportation. And the statement that it makes? That the immigration laws/systems that the United States currently has in place are not only unfair but actually contrary to the connections that naturally spring from life.

As Mouna says, "After a time you forget; you think that you really belong." We see that sense of belonging in the relationships between Mouna, Walter, Tarek, and Zainab. They live together, they eat together, they play music together, they call each other friend, and they hold each other in their sadness. But as the immigration lawyer Walter hired to help Tarek says, when it comes to the law, "It's black and white now. Either you belong or you don't."

I have to say, with statements like that, a shot or two of "Bring Our Troops Home" banners, and cuts to American flags immediately after scenes of separation, the message becomes a bit heavy handed. That last time we see both Tarek and Walter, they are angry. Tarek cries out that he just wants to live his life and play his music. Walter beats his drum with a force that expresses his own anger at the injustice he is able to do nothing to correct. And in the end, the message that The Visitor puts at its forefront is one of righteous anger. If truly living is about connection and love, then to be alive and to love is to be angry about those things that deny justice, punish the innocent, and destroy connection.

The Visitor is a message movie. And for some, that may be difficult to get past. With so much focus on proving its point, its character development can fall a bit short and its ability to connect on a personal level sometimes falters in the midst of its formula. But although the story is about an issue, as its title says, it is also about The Visitor. That visitor is Walter. And if you are able to brush a bit of its politics off the top, it is in his story that we see more of the personal reality behind the movie's statement.

In many ways, the story of Walter reminds me of the story of The Good Samaritan. Like the Samaritan and the man who he helps, Walter and his new friends would be considered to come from groups that would not normally associate, much less help each other. When Walter invites Tarek and Zainab to continue to stay in his apartment, he is definitely going beyond any call of duty or obligation. When Tarek is arrested and Walter sets aside his own life to visit him and meet with his lawyer, Mouna tells Walter, "You don't have to do this. This is not your problem." But nonetheless, he continues to help.

As Walter tells Mouna, he wants to. In fact, as he admits, helping Tarek and Mouna has given his life more meaning and purpose than it has had in very long time. Walter may be a respected college professor. He may have written three books and be working on his fourth. But as he tells Mouna, "I'm not busy, not at all. I pretend that I'm busy, that I'm working, that I'm writing. I'm not doing anything." And as Walter goes from a life of empty busyness to a life of helping others, we see in his transformation a lesson from the story of The Good Samaritan that I think we often don't realize is there.

Yes, it is the right thing to help others. It is good to reach across divisions. It is foolish to think love has boundaries. And it is wrong to live lives that only pursue our own selfish ambitions and ignore everyone around us. But when it comes to helping others, it is not just a matter of doing right and avoiding wrong. Giving of ourselves transforms not only the lives of those who receive but also those who give. By reaching out to those outside our social, racial, or economic circle, we encounter truths and lessons we would never find anywhere else. By sharing our meals and our drink with others, our day-to-day lives go from mere existence to experience. And by focusing our pursuits on others instead of just ourselves, we also become aware of and enlivened by a purpose greater than we could ever find in even the busiest life lived alone.

As The Visitor's tagline says, "In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life." Although the end of The Visitor doesn't quite head off in the direction of happily ever after, there is much happiness that has been shared. And while the places we leave all of our characters at the movie's close may feel less than ideal, there is a sense that the time they shared together will somehow make a difference in whatever lives lie ahead of them all.