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The Visitor

7.2

10,859

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Original title

The Visitor

Year

2007

Running time

108 min.

Country

United States

Director

Tom McCarthy

Screenwriter

Tom McCarthy

Cast

Music

Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

Cinematography

Oliver Bokelberg

Producer

Overture Films, Groundswell Productions, Participant Media

Genre

Drama | Immigration. Independent Film (US)

Synopsis

In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s follow-up to his award winning directorial debut The Station Agent, Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) stars as Walter Vale, a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City. Through new found connections with virtual strangers, Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life. College professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) travels to New York to attend a conference and finds a young couple -- a Syrian guy (Haaz Sleiman) and a Senegalese woman (Danai Jekesai Gurira) -- living in the apartment he keeps there. The surprise leads to unexpected friendships, and a much-needed new lease on life for Vale.

Awards: 2008: Oscar: Nominated to Best Actor (Richard Jenkins)

2008: National Board of Review: Best Actor (Richard Jenkins)

2008: Nominated for Critics' Choice Awards: Best Actor (Jenkins)

2008: Writers Guild of America (WGA): Nominated for Best Original Screenplay

2008: Screen Actors Guild (SAG): Nominated for Best Actor (Richard Jenkins)

2008: Chicago Film Critics Awards: Nominated for Best Actor (Richard Jenkins)

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Critics' reviews

"Even as it goes more or less where you think it will, it still manages to surprise you along the way (...) Objections are, for the most part, dissolved by the clarity and simplicity of Mr. McCarthy’s direction"

A. O. Scott: The New York Times
"This is a wonderful film, sad, angry, and without a comforting little happy ending (...) Jenkins creates a surprisingly touching, very quiet, character study (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: rogerebert.com
"Gives viewers a perceptive, deeply personal take on the timeless immigrant narrative, in which the most epic journey is finally one of self-discovery."

Ann Hornaday: The Washington Post
"The Visitor is Tired and Poor. Preachy liberal guilt dwarfs any good intentions in immigrant drama. (...) McCarthy unquestionably means well, but he's made one of those incredibly naïve movies that gives liberals a bad name, and which does more to regress the sociopolitical discourse than advance it."

Scott Foundas: Village Voice

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Ranking Lists Position

48 My Top 10 Movies from 2007 (84)

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The Visitor

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