Pun Salad

I'd been seeing Richard Jenkins in movies for many years, but I first noticed him in an otherwise-dreary Jennifer Aniston movie (Rumor Has It...), where he played Jennifer's dad. He has an amazing little speech near the end of the movie that made me sit up and take notice. And ever since, I've been watching for movies where he appears. This is the first one, I think, where he plays a lead role.

He plays Walter, an econ prof at a college in Connecticut, emotionally shut down and stagnant after the death of his pianist wife. Apparently he's trying to learn to play the piano to somehow reconnect with her memory; it isn't going well.

Much against his wishes, Walter is sent to deliver a paper at a conference in New York City. He decides to stay in the apartment he keeps, but hasn't visited in years. To his surprise, it's occupied by a couple of illegal aliens, a drummer from Syria and his girlfriend from Senegal. (They're surprised too, since they were being scammed into paying rent.) Being a decent sort, Walter allows them to stay until they can make other arrangements. But gradually their relationship builds, fueled by his increasing fascination with drumming; it turns out to have been just the thing to bring him back to emotional life.

It's a nice little movie, especially if you like culture-clashes and character redemption. Richard Jenkins doesn't disappoint, communicating volumes about his character with the barest hints of eye movement and lip twitches.

Unfortunately, the plot then enmeshes with a PC saga about immigration and a harsh, unfeeling bureaucracy. OK, they probably had to do something, but this is pretty predictable.