CRITICS’PICKS

In Tom McCarthy’s “The Visitor,” Richard Jenkins stars as Walter, a lonely professor who enjoys a brief emotional springtime after he meets a couple of illegal immigrants who have been conned into thinking they are legitimately renting his apartment. When they run afoul of the post-Sept. 11 bureaucracy, Walter becomes more involved in their lives than he’s been involved in anything in years. “The Visitor” has an effect well beyond its superficial appeal for its ability to stoke our sense of justice. In fact, the phrase “It’s not fair!” is uttered more than once in the movie, and if it sounds juvenile, it does so in a way that’s noble, uncomplicated and refreshing.