The Visitor | 
 enlarge | Director: Tom Mccarthy
Actors: Richard Jenkins, Hazz Sleiman, Hiam Abbas
Studio: ANCHOR BAY
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 928
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Hifi Sound, Surround Sound, Thx, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 104
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: ANBD80008D
UPC: 013138000897
EAN: 0013138000897
ASIN: B0015OKWKI
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: October 7, 2008
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Product Description
Walter is a disaffected college professor who has been drifting aimlessly through his life. When in a chance encounter to nyc walter discovers a couple has taken up residence in his apartment in the city he develops an unexpected & profound connection that will change his life forever. Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 10/07/2008 Starring: Richard Jenkins Run time: 108 minutes Rating: Pg13
Amazon.com
A deeply moving drama built around longtime character actor Richard Jenkins, The Visitor is a simmering drama about a college professor and recent widower, Walter Vale (Jenkins), who discovers a pair of homeless, illegal aliens living in his New York apartment. After the mix-up is resolved, Vale invites the couple--a young, Syrian musician named Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend (Danai Gurira--to stay with him. An unlikely friendship develops between the retiring, quiet Vale and the vital Tarek, and the former begins to loosen up and respond to Tarek's drumming lessons as if something in him waiting to be liberated has finally arrived. All goes well until Tarek is hauled in by immigration authorities and threatened with deportation. His mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), turns up and stays with Vale, sparking a renewed if subdued interest in courtship. But the wheels of injustice in immigration crush all manner of hopes in post-9/11 America. Vale soon realizes his unexpected capacity for anger over Tarek's plight, and the positive changes to his personal life that emerged from a deep involvement with his friend and Mouna, might be the only legacy he takes from this experience. Writer-director Thomas McCarthy has created a wonderfully measured story about change and renewal, and put it all on the shoulders of Jenkins, a largely unheralded but masterful performer whose time for renown has surely come. --Tom Keogh
Stills from The Visitor (click for larger image) Beyond The Visitor 
On Blu-ray | 
Soundtrack CD | 
Also directed by Tom McCarthy |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 77 more reviews...
 A shame the ending was not as good as the whole film December 1, 2008
An interesting film about the very negative and inhumane consequences of the security policy that followed 9/11, though it was present already before. I got one of these famous letters giving you two weeks to leave the USA when I was in North Carolina, though I had been on a wrong visa for nine months and the immigration services knew about it and just tolerated it because I had to fulfill a contract that had been signed and the fault was that of a dumb bureaucrat in the US consulate in Bordeaux. 9/11 only increased the tension and made that policy a lot more systematic. But it is totally false to believe that this security policy is only trying to identify the illegal immigrants in the USA. The real aim is not to terrorize them (which it does of course), it is to really terrorize the potential illegal immigrants by treating those they catch like absolute manure: maybe like that a good proportion of them will not even envisage the trip. The point is not to control the flow but to keep it within reasonable limits because the millions of illegal immigrants are indispensable for the economy to go on working and be competitive. At the same time that enables labor costs to be brought down, hence to keep some rather high salaries at the top because at the bottom they are paid worse than slaves would be. At the same time the problem is a lot more complex than that. It is obvious that immigration would not be a problem if all countries in the world had the same chances to develop, which is not the case, and by developing I mean improve their lots at once economically, politically and culturally, if not psychologically and spiritually. What I consider the worst part of it is that these immigrants come into developed countries with the consumption requirements of their original living standards, just slightly improved, and thus they are able to live rather happily with very little, a lot lower than a fair proportion of us. The film is all the more interesting because it reveals that these immigrants are bringing in talents and qualifications that have little to do with the share of gross national product that enables them to live on the dream that they think is realized, though it is as precarious as precarious can be, like a sand castle on the tide line. In that particularly case it is music. In that particular case it also enables the university professor from Connecticut to admit that he is a pretender who is doing nothing in his life, teaching the same course he has been teaching for 25 years, writing books that are more or less nothing but patient pollen gathering that does not go beyond that and never reaches the level of honey, not to speak of royal jelly. But the end of the film is totally off the point. He has learned nothing after all, playing his drum in the Broadway-Lafayette Street subway station, when he should be playing in Central Park with all the other drum players because that's what this contact should have led him to: sharing and enjoying with fellow-travelers in life the passion they have in common. He has not come out of his solitude or pretence: he has just learned to live his solitude in public. That's very little.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Beautiful, bittersweet movie November 29, 2008
Richard Jenkins masterfully plays the part of Professor Walter Vale, a man whose life has become totally empty since his wife died. He goes through the motions of teaching and writing, but inside he is an empty shell. He is asked to go to New York to present a paper which he supposedly co-wrote so he goes to his apartment there and is shocked to find it inhabited by two people he doesn't know. Tricked by an unscrupulous realtor, Tarek from Syria and Zainab from Senegal think that they have legally rented the apartment. They agree to leave, but Walter offers to let them stay there until they can find another place. Tarek and Walter strike up a friendship which centers on Tarek teaching Walter to play the drums. Just as the friendship deepens, the Immigration Department rears its ugly head and suddenly things become very complicated. This is a beautiful film, sensitively written and acted, and one which will stay with the viewer for a long time.
Love November 28, 2008
I loved this movie. Watched it twice within 24 hours. It does deserve a good sound system and well set up television. The experience is so much better to hear those drums, and a gorgeous soundtrack.
To me, the politics took a back seat to the story about loss, recovery, finding a new life, and love. The best part of this film, the ending takes everyone by surprise. It's so perfect. It's so real life.
This was a delicate, perfectly paced film. It moved at a deliberate pace, but never once asked for a fast forward.
I'm sorry for those that can only see the politics in this film. If it were a treatise on immigration, the film would have taken a completely different approach. The fact that we see nothing of the interior of the detention center, no deep description of how Tarek is treated, no rounding up of illegal aliens.... No this film is about love and relationships.
The best part, this is a PG-13 rated film, and is absolutely a family film.
Good movie November 27, 2008
This was a very sweet story, well told and well acted. Very positive message.
 Such good people in bad situations November 26, 2008
Walter Vale is a widowed college professor who lives in Connecticut. It's been ages since he's visited the apartment he keeps in Manhattan. Imagine his surprise upon--returning to New York for an academic conference--he finds a young, foreign couple living in his flat. After a few tense moments that may burst into violence, things calm down, and it becomes clear that Takek and Zaineb have been rented the vacant apartment by a third party under false pretences. They don't want any trouble, and agree to leave immediately.
Quickly enough, the good-hearted Walter feels badly about throwing them out on the street. He chases them down and invites them to come back for a few days until they can find a place to stay. So begins a friendship and a relationship that may change the lives of all involved.
Zainab is Senegalese and reserved. Tarek, on the other hand is Syrian, outgoing, and always ready with a smile. He is a professional drummer, and he and Walter discover an affinity for percussion. There is more to Walter than his button-down exterior. After a lesson in Central Park, Walter and Takek are returning home when a minor misunderstanding leads to Tarek's arrest. Back at the apartment Zainab informs him that No, everything will not be alright, because she and Tarek are illegal aliens.
I don't want to tell much more, because the pleasure in any story is seeing how it unfolds. This is a difficult story with political undertones, one that is surely being acted out every day in America. The other pleasure of this story is the uniformly excellent performances by all the principles, from the newcomers who play Zainab and Tarek, to veteran Richard Jenkins who embodies Walter. I actually don't believe that Jenkins is capable of giving a bad performance.
I can't say that this was a flawlewss film, but with so many bad films out there, I think this one is well worth your time. It's interesting, features characters you grow to really care about, and your eyes may even be opened a bit to some of the realities of immigration.
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