The Visitor

There were many areas in this film that a character crossed the line. From Tarek snapping at Walter for saying he understood what Tarek was going through, while Tarek was explaining how he felt inside the jail, to Walter being arrogant toward Mona when he stated that she wouldn’t understand his writing since she wasn’t a writer. I also felt that Zainab was rude and arrogant toward Walter and that crossed the line. There Walter was, going out of his way to let them stay with him for free in Walter’s apartment and she showed no compassion towards Walter. Even when Walter was helping with the Lawyer, I did not think Zainab was thankful about it.

In the end, the most upsetting thing to watch was the police officers, crossing the line with Tarek in the subway station. I felt they were forceful, pushy, and very unprofessional. They made idle threats towards Walter, when he was trying to explain what had happened with the token machine. The police officers didn’t care. They saw Tarek as a possible terrorist and therefore arrested him. The only person in my opinion that did not cross the line was Mona, Tarek’s mother. Even what Mona, kept repeating how black Zainab was, I didn’t think she was crossing the line.

The character that I have selected that crosses the line in this film, were the New York police officers. They take an oath to protect and serve. Not, bully and become power hungry. If it had been a white man that had become stuck going through the token booth, there is a good chance the police would not have said anything. They may have even assisted the person who was stuck. They simply could have given Tarek the chance to explain, but they did not. By doing this, they broke their oath to serve the people. They instantly targeted Tarek because of race. There were no limitations for the police that day when they arrested Tarek. They did not give Tarek the time of day.

This was a wonderful movie. I felt so sorry for poor Walter. Walter couldn’t find the right piano teacher, which in my opinion she was not very friendly. He missed his wife and was lonely, an outsider. I was delighted to see Walter enjoying the drums and building that relationship with Tarek. I was so hopeful in the end that Walter would have married Tarek’s mother. I was shocked to see Mona climb into bed with Walter. She was very conservative, but you could see she didn’t want to be alone. I was really hoping to see a kiss between the two of them at that moment. But the situation was tender enough.