Just when you thought that new movies were targeting only the younger generation, a new trend is emerging—geared to issues and interests of the Baby Boomers and Beyond set. Such is the case with Overture Films’ newly released The Visitor. This film is actor/filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s follow-up to his award-winning directorial debut, The Station Agent, and, according to the online movie website, www.rottentomatoes.com, it centers on a Connecticut-based economics professor, “whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City.”

The disaffected professor, 62-year old Walter Vale, is played by Richard Jenkins of HBO’s Six Feet Under, who is virtually “sleepwalking through his life,” having lost his passion for teaching and writing. When he is sent to Manhattan to attend a conference, he finds a young couple occupying his apartment, victims of a real estate scam. Against his nature, he agrees to let them stay on. In turn for his kindness, the young man, a musician, teaches Walter to play the African drum, which sparks a growing friendship between the academic and the undocumented Tarek.  In time, the vibrancy of the instrument reinvigorates Walter, and connects him with the local music scene of jazz clubs and drum circles. Slowly, the relationship between the two men deepens and the differences of culture, age, and temperament dissolve away.

When Tarek is arrested and held for deportation, Walter reacts with a passion he thought was long lost. About this time Tarek’s beautiful mother arrives on the scene in search of her son and subsequently finds she has feelings for Walter. Happily, the feelings are mutual.

By the end of the film, because of his new emotional connections, Walter has grown from old and apathetic to revitalized and young in spirit.