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The Visitor

  • 2007
  • PG-13
  • 1h 44m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
45K
YOUR RATING
Richard Jenkins and Danai Gurira in The Visitor (2007)
Theatrical Trailer from Overture Films
Play trailer2:28
1 Video
75 Photos
Drama

A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.

  • Director
    • Tom McCarthy
  • Writer
    • Tom McCarthy
  • Stars
    • Richard Jenkins
    • Haaz Sleiman
    • Danai Gurira
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    45K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Tom McCarthy
    • Writer
      • Tom McCarthy
    • Stars
      • Richard Jenkins
      • Haaz Sleiman
      • Danai Gurira
    • 176User reviews
    • 237Critic reviews
    • 79Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 19 wins & 35 nominations total

    Videos1

    The Visitor
    Trailer 2:28
    The Visitor

    Photos75

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    Top cast29

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    Richard Jenkins
    Richard Jenkins
    • Walter
    Haaz Sleiman
    Haaz Sleiman
    • Tarek
    Danai Gurira
    Danai Gurira
    • Zainab
    Hiam Abbass
    Hiam Abbass
    • Mouna
    Marian Seldes
    Marian Seldes
    • Barbara
    Maggie Moore
    • Karen
    Michael Cumpsty
    Michael Cumpsty
    • Charles
    Bill McHenry
    • Darin
    Richard Kind
    Richard Kind
    • Jacob
    Tzahi Moskovitz
    Tzahi Moskovitz
    • Zev
    Amir Arison
    Amir Arison
    • Mr. Shah
    Neal Lerner
    Neal Lerner
    • Martin Revere
    Ramon Fernandez
    Ramon Fernandez
    • Cop #1
    Frank Pando
    Frank Pando
    • Cop #2
    Waleed Zuaiter
    Waleed Zuaiter
    • Omar
    Deborah Rush
    Deborah Rush
    • Upper Eastside Woman
    Ashley Springer
    Ashley Springer
    • Student
    Laith Nakli
    Laith Nakli
    • Nasim
    • Director
      • Tom McCarthy
    • Writer
      • Tom McCarthy
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews176

    7.645.4K
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    Featured reviews

    10Movie-Jay

    Sensitive & Thoughtful Film

    Thomas McCarthy's 2nd film after the wonderful "Station Agent" is equally good, if not better. I can't recommend Richard Jenkins' performance any higher here. He plays a widowed professor who is drifting through life rather aimlessly until he visits his New York apartment and finds there are two people squatting there. I won't give away anything else, except to say that it'll be a shame if this film flies under the radar. Jenkins is a character actor that everyone recognizes, but that few of us know. Here he occupies the first third of the film practically alone, and reminds us in moments of the Jack Nicholson character from "About Schmidt" with his dry humor that is on display for his crabby piano teacher.

    Don't you just love watching an actor up there alone who keeps you spellbound in a subtle way? That's how this movie starts, and gradually we come to meet the couple in Jenkins' apartment, and the mother of one of them. The movie flows economically and with much care, but by the end it creeps up on us and makes us feel glad along the way as well as making us pause and reflect on the state of our world.

    Lovely, lovely movie.
    adamshl

    Small Comments

    Mr. McCarthy's film seems to be working at several levels, a main one being the character development of Walter Vale, and another the effects of blind bureaucracy upon the human spirit.

    It was interesting to see Vale's callous attitude toward one of his students early on when the lad was late turning in a class paper. The student's reason: some serious personal issues. Did the professor show any extra understanding or compassion for the young man? No; the paper was late and therefore simply unacceptable.

    Yet when Vale wanted information and understanding later on at the immigration department when making inquiry about the deportation of Tarek Kahlel, what did he do but blatantly rant about how insensitive and unimpassioned was the system. This, after he'd previously witnessed a similar situation at the front desk with another frustrated inquirer.

    What's the country to do, having immigration regulations in place: excuse and make special exceptions for certain illegal aliens? As Vale showed no interest in learning about his student's situation, he yet expected the immigration department to bend to his personal demands.

    Vale was certainly a pathetic prof, drifting through life without energy or passion. His encounter with Tarek and his wife and mother all seemed rather arbitrary, allowing these relationships to become his interest, for lack of a better direction. Personally, I felt sorry for this glum character, yet mindful that the death of a spouse can cause some derailment in direction.

    The cast was uniformly fine, with special kudos to Richard Jenkins and Haaz Sleiman.
    9movieman430

    Charming, character driven drama

    Thomas McCarthy's second film, after the charming Station Agent, is a quiet, hard look at several different aspects of humanity. The Visitor centers on Walter Vale, masterfully portrayed by Richard Jenkins. A solemn economics teacher, he spends his time pretending to write on his book and learn piano. Walter finds himself in New York on business and runs into two illegal immigrants, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira who were tricked into renting his apartment. Tarek and Walter strike up an unusual friendship when Tarek begins to teach Walter how to play the drums. This is interrupted by Tarek's arrest and detention while it is decided whether he will be deported or not. Soon Walter is joined by Tarek's mother Mouna.

    The Visitor is a wonderful piece that brings together some of the best performances I have seen this year. McCarthy disarms us with wry humor, quiet wit, and a meditative pace and before we know it we've found ourselves immersed. When the credits have rolled, however, it's not so much the plot that stays with us as the characters. The most perplexing and fascinating character is Walter Vale. The transformation undergone by his character is done perfectly, the changes are noticeable but not intrusive. Tarek and Zainab who have only a handful of scenes together, manage to share incredible chemistry. Hiam Abbass, as Tarek's mother, deepens the connection between the characters, almost filling in the cracks to complete a whole.

    At first glance, the Visitor seems political in nature. Thomas McCarthy has actually said that was not true, the deportation aspect of the film actually came into the script later in the process. The Visitor, instead of political aspirations, merely seeks to show us that anyone can change your life and that change is all around us and is indeed a good thing.

    In the end, Thomas McCarthy succeeds in bringing capturing the humor, tragedy, and change of the human experience in his new film. Brought to life by incredibly stirring performances, particularly Richard Jenkins, the Visitor is the most emotionally powerful film to light up the big screen in a while.
    9shybiker

    Outstanding

    It's only about twice a decade that I run across a movie that really impresses me. It's usually an obscure film that I entered with no expectations -- but left blown away by its cinematic achievement.

    I just saw such a film tonight. "The Visitor" A small independent production with zero-advertising. Made by Tom McCarthy whose prior film, "The Station Agent," was an imperfect, character-absorbed drama.

    The star of this movie is an actor (Richard Jenkins) whom you'll recognize from his numerous roles as minor-characters, most notably the dead-patriarch in "Six Feet Under." All of the other actors are completely unknown, but notably talented.

    The appeal of this film is its story. An aged, listless academic, whose wife died earlier, floats through his uninteresting life until something happens to jar him. What happens next is unexpected, interesting and poignant. It would ruin the story if I told it to you, so you'll have to trust me. Suffice it to say it's a story of rebirth.

    Like most of my favorite films, it has comedy, pathos, surprises, authenticity and a philosophical examination of what it means to be human. In short, everything, even politics.

    And the presentation is skillfully-crafted. McCarthy demonstrates what was good about his prior work without dragging it down with what was bad about that work.

    See it.
    9laraemeadows

    The Visitor

    The Visitor strings together unlikely events in the lives of a professor and his visitors. Remarkably sincere and touching, the unimaginable events feel natural.

    Awkward Connecticut economics professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) has essentially checked out from his job, his personality and his life. Walter is forced by circumstance to return to his abandoned New York City apartment. When he returns he meets Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira), who have taken up unauthorized residence in his apartment. Tarek and Zainab teach Walter to live again, to come out of his shell and remind him how unfair life can be.

    Writer and director Thomas McCarthy wrote all of the characters in The Visitor with almost contradictory personality attributes which gives them each a complex humanity.

    McCarthy wrote Walter Vale painfully dull and bumbling but it was Richard Jenkins who also makes Walter charming and heart breaking. In nearly every setting, Jenkins both makes the audience scrunch their faces at Walter's social inadequacies while simultaneously bringing out our Florence Nightingale instincts. As Walter changes in the course The Visitor, Jenkins keeps the essential qualities of Walter but changes him in surprising ways.

    The supporting cast isn't any less remarkable in The Visitor. There is a master of life, a vision of unabashed sadness and an embodiment of sensual motherly warmth. Haaz Sleiman, who plays Tarek, is (damn foxy) full of life as Tarek. His esprit fills Tarek, the audience, the other characters and actors with such vitality. Danai Jekesai Guria plays Zainab, Tarek's girlfriend. So much of Zainab is forlorn despondent dejection. Rich with beautiful hardness and unnaturally attractive pain, Danai Jekesai Guria made Zainab so hard to watch but impossible to pull your eyes away from. Hiam Abbass plays Mouna, Tarek's mother. Her fear is palpable but she never loses her intangible sensuality.

    The most remarkable part of The Visitor is the way it organically shows the way life can change un-expectantly, unfairly and without warning and does it with real, raw emotion. Just when you think you've figured out what the movie is about, you slapped with a new reality. It is frightening, timely and angering. Even the ending, which is not the typical movie ending, is emotive in a subtle and realistic way. I was not overwhelmed or underwhelmed by the movie, I was perfectly whelmed; a task indeed.

    The pacing is the one complaint I have with The Visitor. The editing could have been much better. There are beautiful scenes sometimes drawn out to boredom. Scenes that were the actors' timing is slightly off are only highlighted by the shoddy editing. The Visitor is an artsy movie but Tom McArdle checked out completely in a few of the scenes.

    Slow bits aside, The Visitor is a rewarding film with rich characters, beautiful acting and complexities that might make those people who are quick to tears, cry.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      For The Visitor (2007), Tom McCarthy won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, while Richard Jenkins was nominated for Best Actor at the 81st Academy Awards®.
    • Goofs
      In New York airport, the flight was announced as "flight to Syria", although it should actually name the airport (Damascus), not the country. But more importantly, there is no direct non-stop flight from New York to Syria.
    • Quotes

      Prof. Walter Vale: We are not helpless children!

    • Crazy credits
      Baldwin's L2 grand piano
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: 88 Minutes/The Life Before Her Eyes/Forgetting Sarah Marshall/The Forbidden Kingdom/Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?/The Visitor (2008)
    • Soundtracks
      Salsera
      Written by La Palabra (as Palabra)

      Performed by Orquestra La Palabra

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    FAQ22

    • How long is The Visitor?Powered by Alexa
    • Is 'The Visitor' based on a book?
    • Once deported, can a person ever get back into the United States legally?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 23, 2008 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • Arabic
      • Romanian
    • Also known as
      • Du Khách
    • Filming locations
      • East Village Wines, East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Groundswell Productions
      • Next Wednesday Productions
      • Participant
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $4,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $9,443,451
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $86,488
      • Apr 13, 2008
    • Gross worldwide
      • $18,213,880
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 44 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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