Richard Jenkins Nominated for Best Actor

The Oscar nominations have been released. I'm seldom pleased with who wins (the decisions are often political messages to the outside world), but I'm overjoyed Richard Jenkins is nominated for his lead in The Visitor.

The Visitor is the story of a unfulfilled, middle-aged professor who discovers his second apartment has been rented out to illegal immigrants. Rather than kick them out, he decides to get to know them and you can guess where things go from there. For being about illegal immigration in the post-Dubya world, the film is neither a Hallmark sob-fest nor an ideological gatling gun. Instead, it's a hushed, near-masterpiece of realism that strikes a careful balance of ethos, pathos and logos.

Likely, there were "better" films this year--either Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke will win, probably Penn--but I didn't enjoy any other film as much as The Visitor.