The Visitor [Blu-ray] | ![The Visitor [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OPxbEnwGL._SL160_.jpg) | Director: Tom McCarthy
Actors: Michael Cumpsty, Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Hiam Abbass
Studio: ANCHOR BAY
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.97
Buy New: $9.44
as of 9/4/2010 14:07 CDT details
You Save: $10.53 (53%)
New (21) Used (9) from $8.25
Seller: Dark Fire Comics
Rating:  166 reviews
Sales Rank: 18,282
Format: Color, Dolby, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: 013138304582
UPC: 013138304582
EAN: 0013138304582
ASIN: B001C0NMUC
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Lonely widower Walter befriends the immigrant couple who unwittingly leased his New York apartment, and fights for them when they are threatened with
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 DVD | 
Soundtrack CD | 
Also directed by Tom McCarthy |
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 166
 An excellent movie! August 14, 2010
John L. Folmar (san francisco, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Knowing nothing about this smaller independent movie, I rented it on a whim from Netflix based on several good reviews and was deeply moved by the acting performances and the storyline.
Middle aged Connecticut College professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) has been widowed for several years and doesn't find much joy in life. He lives each day passionless and disaffected, unaroused by anyone or anything around him, although there are signs that he is trying to find a way to get connected to life. As the movie opens, he has been learning to play the piano for many months, although not very successfully and he is dismissing yet another in a long string of piano teachers because he cannot find in himself the passion he either knows exists or should exist in learning to play a musical instrument.
Going through his professorial duties on autopilot (he has been teaching the same Economics class for 20 years and cares little about it) Walter is ordered by the dean of the department to travel to New York City to present a paper at a conference that a colleague has written. Completely unmotivated and viewing the trip as nothing less than a chore, Walter treks into Manhattan to an apartment that he has not used in "a long time" only to encounter two twenty-something illegal aliens living there in Syrian man Tariq (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira). Learning they were conned out of all their money to acquire the apartment several months ago, Walter takes pity on them and lets them stay for a day or two until they find another place to live.
However, a friendship soon blossoms between Walter and the outgoing and likeable Tariq who is a gifted musician on a special type of African drum. Walter begins to find life within himself through the resonant beat of the drum and Tariq's infectious enthusiasm for music and life. Unfortunately, things suddenly take a turn for the worse when Tariq, a Muslim, is arrested in one of New York's subway stations for allegedly not paying the toll and he is soon incarcerated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and threatened with deportation. Rationally assuming justice will quickly prevail, Walter soon finds himself deeply moved by Tariq and Zainab's plight and begins to assert himself emotionally in helping them.
Note: Many may not care for the movie's plot which involves illegal immigration in America, especially considering the divisive political times in which we live in regarding this issue as our country struggles over how to integrate the 10's of millions of illegal immigrants now living in the country. However, the subject of immigration in The Visitor, really serves more as a vehicle for the true theme of the movie....friendship and the discovery of conviction and meaning in one's life.
Poignant August 10, 2010
myfoot101 (IA)
This film is so poignant yet incredibly smooth in delivering its message. The cast is well-chosen and directed. Demure cinema comes to mind.
Simply loved it August 4, 2010
santiago amonte
Amazing movie that really catches your emotions.
It's a movie about opotunities and how they conect in a suitable fashion all over the movie.
Amzing acting.
The Visitor July 22, 2010
Marilyn
I loved this movie. Casting was great, performances were believable, subject matter was important. My only complaint was not about the movie, but the DVD does not play all of the movie-bad spots on the disc which required skipping two sections of the movie. Luckily I had seen the movie in theater. However, I wanted this one for my library because it is one you can see over and over... This is worth the see, but be aware that you too might get a bad disc!The Visitor
 The unthinkable intersections of fate! July 16, 2010
Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A solitaire man (Richard Jenkins) , whose wife has passed way is a remarkable investigator and docent in the University. His life turns around these items. And additionally, he tries to keep into his affective memory the presence of his wife who was an eminent pedagogue of the piano.
He is not precisely gifted for the play of the nobles of the instruments. But his life will experience a real twist of fate when he returns to his apartment and so he realizes a couple of immigrants (He comes from Syria and she from Senegal). Since this curious incident, a heartfelt friendship will begin when our sad and introspective protagonist experiences the beat playing the djembe ( a percussion instrument).
From this perspective an underserved incident will show him the provisory measures since 9/11 and a set of crucial events will take place.
As you can see, we have two antagonist situations, the boring existential and almost mechanical behavior of our teacher in contraposition with the joy of vivre of this couple trying in the middle of their unstable condition to forge themselves a promissory future.
A memorable example of the cinema of author that carves in relief once more you don't need a big budget plenty of special effects all the way through.
Watch it. It will reward you from start to finish.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 166
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