Visitor, The (Blu-ray)

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The performances are wonderful, and the ambience that McCarthy creates--a mood that overrides even the dominant emotion of every scene--is an unspoken sense of possibility for global interaction, at least on the personal level.

Video:
This has the look of an indie film, though--which is to say that there's a slight atmospheric haze that seems to coat each scene. Colors aren't fully saturated, and there doesn't seem to be any post-production trickery to enhance the look of the film. But this is a slice-of-life film, and any way you cut it the skin tones and colors look natural, not processed. In other words, in 1080p (AVC/MPEG-4 codec) High Definition you'll see plenty of sharpness in foreground figures, and plenty of detail. The transfer appears to be a clean one, with no apparent artifacts, but there's a soft look to this film that we see in a lot of indie flicks. "The Visitor" was filmed in 35mm with an original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, so don't panic when the box says 2.35:1 and a larger image pops up. It's as intended.

Audio:
You really hear the snap of the English PCM 5.1 uncompressed soundtrack when Tarek and Walter slap the rims of their drums. It's a lively, bright and relatively dynamic audio that offers richly textured high notes and lows, and a comfortable mid-range. But unless they're playing, you really don't get a sense of how good the audio is. There's a nice clarity throughout, and rear speakers get involved, too, helping to create that ambience I was speaking of earlier. It's a solid soundtrack, with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track also an option.

Extras:
There are no Blu-ray exclusives, and aside from a substantial commentary there are just two bonus features under eight minutes each and four very short deleted scenes that wouldn't have added much. Writer-director McCarthy provides a nice commentary that offers hope to young filmmakers working on a tight budget. As he does in one of the bonus features, McCarthy talks about how he himself learned to play the djembe in order to better understand Walter's transformation, and he points out other elements of research that were involved in making the film feel as real as it does. McCarthy is joined on the track by Jenkins, who doesn't have as much to say, and in truth there's a little dead air at times when neither man seems inspired to say anything. It's also a little shy in the anecdotal department, but overall it's a solid commentary because of McCarthy's nuts-and-bolts approach. Rounding out the bonus features is the theatrical trailer.

Bottom Line:
"The Visitor" is a powerful indictment of a system that McCarthy alleges is cold and cruel and more than a little capricious in its treatment of detainees, who are kept in a warehouse with no outdoor time--only a ceiling skylight. It's a film about possibilities and improbabilities, one that moves sure-footedly toward a conclusion that, in retrospect, seems inevitable. "The Visitor" is also a leisurely paced character-driven film that provokes thought and discussion, while also integrating the issue of personal loss with that of impersonal treatment. There's sadness here, but there's also hope--maybe not for a system that seems as broken as so many of our institutions, as of late, but at least for humanity.

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