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The Visitor, the follow-up film from writer-director Tom McCarthy after his 2003 Sundance smash The Station Agent, is a film that sneaks up on you, not only with smart surprises, but, more impressively, with the kind of insight and nuance that turns the scenes and character moments you can see coming into deeper, richer, smarter versions of those scenes and character moments than you’d expect. At its center, The Visitor is a story we’ve all seen before; at its heart, it feels warm and human and wonderful and unique without ever stooping to sentiment or simplicity.

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is an economics professor who’s drifting through his life; shattered by the death of his wife, he’s indifferent to his students in Connecticut, ignoring a book, shirking his responsibilities. Forced to present a paper in Manhattan, Walter goes to his New York apartment for the first time in a while … and finds it occupied, by Tarik (Hazz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Guria), who’ve been told they’re subletting an unoccupied apartment. Walter, for no good reason, extends himself to Tarik and Zainab, letting them stay for a few days. It’s a big gesture born of simple kindness. It’s going to get a lot more complicated.

Tarik and Zeniab love each other — a complex, grown-up love. Zeniab works as a street vendor; Tarik plays the djembe, a West African drum, around town with various pick-up gigs. Walter’s wife was a classical pianist, and he’s been trying piano lessons to feel connected to her in her absence, but Walter feels something stirring in him when he watches Tarik play the drum. And then Tarik is arrested — a simple misunderstanding at a subway turnstile — but it’s enough to get him in the system, and the fact he’s an illegal immigrant from Syria in a post-9-11 world is enough to get him sent to a detention center in Queens. This is not Walter’s problem; Walter, choosing to engage with the world for the first time in a long time, decides it is. …

You may recognize Richard Jenkins from Six Feet Under, where he played the dead head of the Fisher family; he’s also, over the years, been in everything from The Core to Step Brothers. The Visitor gives Jenkins a chance to carry a film, and he does so with grace and skill and real charisma, and McCarthy’s script is both brilliantly written and yet exquisitely natural, giving Jenkins plenty to work with and a sensibility to fit into. The DVD’s extras include commentary from McCarthy and Jenkins, and it’s a great portrait of a true creative collaboration. McCarthy’s direction is never flashy, but, like the performances of his actors, it instead turns minor moments into something whole and complete, small brushstrokes that build to an immensely engaging portrait of human behavior and modern life. At the same time it has a flow and charm and grace to it that make it feel completely natural and still wholly engaging.

There aren’t a lot of big moments in The Visitor — few confrontations, almost no big speeches, no poses or posturing — and instead McCarthy creates a story full of real people in real circumstances. No one here is a plaster saint; McCarthy respects his characters enough to let them be wrong, let them be unkind, let them be human. Jenkins doesn’t get the showy scenes and over-the-top acting challenges that the Academy normally loves (Tropic Thunder may not have been perfect, but it was merciless, funny and right about the kind of things the Academy rewards), but if there’s any justice, he’ll be given a Best Actor nomination for his careful, considered work here that builds small intimate scenes into a portrait whose power is ultimately truly affecting. Much like The Station Agent, this is a story about people who understand the necessity and difficulty of human connection; unlike The Station Agent‘s small town charm and whimsy, The Visitor takes place in a bigger, tougher world. The plot, the characters and even the poster for The Visitor may have you thinking you know what it’s going to be like, but trust me: It’s so much more, and learning that for myself was one of the great movie going joys I’ve had in 2008.

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