A small film emerges from nowhere, suddenly becomes one of the best reviewed films of the year, and runs for more than three months in a handful of theatres in major American cities. This is a film about immigrants, in a sense. It is also about humanity, and the unexpected way people from different backgrounds come together and forge an alliance. It is notable for a slew of performances by veteran but not too well known actors as well as new artistes.
The long time character actor Richard Jenkins (North Country, TV series, Six Feet Under) gives his career best performance as a widowed New York professor in a 9/11 world who discovers that a pair of illegal aliens (from the Middle East and West Africa) have been living in his New York apartment.
After the mix-up is resolved, he invites the couple -- a Syrian musician named Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend (Danai Gurira) -- to live with him, at least temporarily. The couple has a positive influence on the professor who begins to loosen up, distancing himself from his wife's death.
But soon, the immigration authorities catch up with the couple and we get to explore bureaucratic hell as the good-intentioned professor becomes the guardian angel for the couple.
The situation becomes more complicated when Tareq's mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass) arrives from the Midwest and stays with the professor. Writer and director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) handles a sentimental, humanist drama here but he never goes overboard.
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