The Visitor (2007)

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

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 19 wins & 34 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Jenkins	...	Walter
Haaz Sleiman	...	Tarek
Danai Gurira	...	Zainab
Hiam Abbass	...	Mouna
Marian Seldes	...	Barbara
Maggie Moore	...	Karen
Michael Cumpsty	...	Charles
Bill McHenry	...	Darin
Richard Kind	...	Jacob
Tzahi Moskovitz	...	Zev
Amir Arison	...	Mr. Shah
Neal Lerner	...	Martin Revere
Ramon Fernandez	...	Cop #1
Frank Pando	...	Cop #2
Waleed Zuaiter	...	Omar

Storyline

In Connecticut, lonely widowed Professor Walter Vale has a boring life. He teaches only one class at the local college and is trying to learn how to play the piano, despite not having the necessary musical talent. Walter is assigned to attend a conference about Global Policy and Development at New York University, where he is to give a lecture about a paper on which he is co-author. When he arrives at his apartment in New York, he finds Tarek Khalil, a Syrian musician, and Zainab, a Senegalese street vendor, living there. He sympathizes with the situation of the illegal immigrants and invites the couple to stay with him. Tarek invites him to go to his gig at Jules Live Jazz. Walter is fascinated with his African drum and Tarek offers to teach Walter to play the drum. However, after an incident in the subway, Tarek is arrested by the police and sent to a detention center for illegal immigrants. Walter has just hired a lawyer to defend Tarek when, out of the blue, Tarek's mother Mouna ...

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Plot Keywords:

professor | conference | lawyer | connecticut | economics | 

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Taglines:

connection is everything

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Arabic Romanian

Release Date:

23 May 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

O Visitante

Filming Locations:

East Village Wines, East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$86,488, 13 April 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$9,422,422, 5 October 2008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Groundswell Productions, Next Wednesday Productions, Participant Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The parking lot in which Walter parks his car after arriving in New York - on East 11th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue - was torn down shortly after the film was released.

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Goofs

As Mouna (Hiam Abbass) and Walter (Richard Jenkins) are becoming closer, Mouna calls Walter Richard - his real name - rather than the character's name.

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Quotes

Mouna Khalil: [frustrated with ruthless US immigration system] It's just like Syria.

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Crazy Credits

Baldwin's L2 grand piano

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Connections

Featured in 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2009)

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Soundtracks

In Memory of the Dead
Written by Mohammad Naseehu Ali (ASCAP)
Performed by Bill McHenry, Nic Thys, Haaz Sleiman

User Reviews

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.