The title character of The Visitor could be almost anyone in the film. Or it could refer to any of the estimated 12 million “visitors” now in this country. Some people, however, have harsher names for them.

The Visitor is an intimate, heartfelt, near-perfect human drama by Tom McCarthy. The writer-director follows The Station Agent by again examining outsiders and how their lives are shaped by society’s reaction and response to them.

The Station Agent ostensibly focused on Peter Dinklage’s character, a dwarf who understandably found it hard to trust and open up to people. But, like The Visitor, McCarthy’s debut film also gathered in seemingly average, normal people, peeling back their layers to uncover the secret pain that lies within everyone.

A perfectly understated Richard Jenkins (the dead father on Six Feet Under) plays Walt Vale, a university professor in Connecticut who sluggishly goes through the motions, counting the days until his retirement. Forced to go into New York City for a conference, he plans on staying at his small pied-a-terre that he once inhabited with his late wife.

But arriving there, he discovers two interlopers, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), from Senegal. The two visitors find they have been scammed, paying rent on Walt’s apartment to a never-seen con man. Tempers rise, followed by a quick eviction, but Walt relents, and the two end up staying until further arrangements can be made.

From there, it’s obvious that Walt will bond with the two, and that quick bonding may mark the film’s rare weakness. But Mc­Carthy depicts the linkage so smoothly, we believe it when Tarek teaches Walt how to play the African drums.

Even the frosty Zainab opens up to Walt, but never enough to overlook the vast cultural differences between them.

Through Tarek, Walt discovers another unexplored world, re­sulting in a symbiotic relationship that neither anticipated. Marking the film’s greatest strength, director McCarthy convincingly de­picts this mutual flowering.

When The Visitor takes an unexpected turn, it sheds a light, and some insight, on the experience that many who come to this country, legally or illegally, go through.

The pain and suffering come in many forms, bringing in friends and relatives who otherwise might seem unaffected.

One of the few regrets about this warm film is that it may arrive too early in the year. If remembered in the fall, it, and Richard Jenkins, will surely garner many awards.

The Visitor

**** 1/2

Rated PG-13, 108 minutes.
Opens today at the Angelika
Plano and Dallas.