DVD Releases October 7, 2008: The Visitor : New DVD Releases

The Visitor
from IMDB

Cast

Richard Jenkins ... Prof. Walter Vale

Haaz Sleiman ... Tarek Khalil

Danai Jekesai Gurira ... Zainab (as Danai Gurira)
Hiam Abbass ... Mouna Khalil

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

Plot

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 Tareks 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 Tareks 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

The Visitor
Directed by Tom McCarthy
Average customer review:

Product Description

Hailed as "one of the year's most intriguing dramas" (Claudia Puig, USA TODAY), The Visitor stars Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) in a perfect performance (Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY) as Walter, a disaffected college professor who has been drifting aimlessly through his life. When, in a chance encounter on a trip into New York, Walter discovers a couple has taken up residence in his apartment in the city, he develops an unexpected and profound connection to them that will change his life forever. As challenges arise for his tenants, Walter finds himself compelled to help his new friends, and rediscovers a passion he thought he had lost long ago. The year's first genuine must-see film" (Ann Hornaday, THE WASHINGTON POST) about rediscovering life's rhythms in the most unexpected places

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #51 in DVD
* Released on: 2008-10-07
* Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
* Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
* Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, HiFi Sound, Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen, NTSC
* Original language: Arabic, English
* Number of discs: 1
* Running time: 104 minutes

Editorial Reviews

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

Customer Reviews

Crazy rhythms
If Richard Jenkins doesn't get an Oscar nod for his amazing performance in Thomas McCarthy's new comedy-drama, The Visitor, I will personally picket the Academy. Writer-director-actor McCarthy's previous effort was the critical favorite The Station Agent, and once again he draws us into an extended family of very believable, warm-blooded characters, generously giving all of his actors plenty of room to breathe.

Jenkins absolutely inhabits the character of the life-tired, middle-aged widower Walter Vale. He is a Connecticut college professor leading a life of quiet desperation; he sleepwalks through his dreary workday, and it's obvious that any inspirational spark is long gone from an unwavering lesson plan that is more aged than his students. His personal life has become rote as well; most of his leisure time is spent puttering, and half-heartedly plunking away on his late wife's piano. In the film's wonderfully played opening scene, Walter fires his private piano teacher, who turns out to be the fourth in a row that he has dismissed. As a parting shot, she suggests that if he should decide that mastering the keyboard is just not his forte, especially "at his age", she would be most interested in buying his "wife's" piano (ouch). Clearly, Walter needs to get out more.

When Walter travels to New York to attend a conference and present a paper, he has a big surprise awaiting him at the seldom-used apartment he keeps in the city. Unbeknownst to the professor, a mysterious third party has sublet his digs to an immigrant couple-a Syrian musician named Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend, Zainab (Danai Gurira). After some tense moments between the mutually startled parties, the forlorn Walter invites them to stay rather than turning them out on the street. As a friendship slowly grows between the three, Walter begins to emerge from his cocoon, prompted by Tarek's infectious enthusiasm for pounding out joyful rhythms on his African djembes. Before he knows it, the staid professor is loosening his tie and joining Tarek in a drum circle at a public park. When Tarek is arrested by undercover cops in the subway due to a misunderstanding and ends up at a detention center for illegal immigrants, Walter hires a lawyer and becomes even more ensconced in the couple's lives. Add one more unexpected "visitor" to the mix-Tarek's widowed mother Mouna (the lovely and stately Israeli actress Hiam Abbass) who has traveled from Detroit to investigate why her son hasn't contacted her for an alarming period of time. Now, all the elements of a "perfect storm" are in place for the reawakening of Walter Vale.

Thanks to Jenkins' subtle, quietly compelling performance, that transformation is the heart of the film, and an absolute joy to behold. Although he has over 70 films to his credit (mostly supporting roles, but always memorable), he is probably most recognizable for his portrayal of the "late" father in HBO's popular series, Six Feet Under. Hiam Abbass is a revelation here as well; she and Jenkins play off each other in sublime fashion in all of their scenes together. In fact, no one in the cast hits a false note, ever. This is undoubtedly due in large part to the fact that McCarthy is an "actor's director" in the literal sense; he remains active in tackling roles himself (most recently appearing in HBO's final season of The Wire as a newspaper journalist who manufactures his stories).

The "strange bedfellows" setup of the plot may look like The Goodbye Girl or The Odd Couple on paper, but this not a glib Neil Simon play, where characters throw perfectly timed zingers at each other; these people feel, and interact, like real human beings. There is plenty of humor, but there is also genuine heartbreak and bittersweet melancholy. The important thing is that it is all perfectly balanced, and beautifully nuanced.

Although the circumstances leading up to Tarek's unfortunate detention could be viewed as an allusion to the sometimes Kafkaesque scenarios faced by illegal immigrants in a post 9-11 world, McCarthy doesn't get preachy on this particular issue or use his film as a polemic.

One thing I will say-if the overwrought and vastly overrated Crash (2005) could win Best Picture, then surely The Visitor, which deals with many of the same themes, and in a less histrionic and more palatable manner, deserves consideration as well (we shall see). In the meantime, you don't want to miss this lovely little gem.

This Is What Independent Filmaking Is All About
Ever so often an independent film materializes amidst the glitz and glamour of Hollywoods zillion dollar budgets that reminds us just how thought provoking and touching films can be. With characters well written and fleshed out, as well as realistic scenarious that force us to question how we'd react if placed in similar circumstances, the Visitor is a tour de force of American independent filmaking. Director Tod mcCarthy takes a hot button subject , and puts faces to those thousands of individuals living here illegaly, some of who just happen to be good people trying to enjoy the American Dream like everyone else. I'm usually pretty stoic when it comes to tearjerker movies, but it is without shame that i admit I cried like a baby during one particular scene( the airport farwell). The transformation of the lead character from an emotionally detached pedagogue to a comforter/ righteously indignant champion of Tariq's plight was also deeply moving..

Overall i'd have to say that in the zenophobic, post 911 society we live in today, it's refreshing to see movies like "The Visitor" eschew media stereotypes and prejudices and show us the "real people" and back stories of individuals who live in this country illegally.

A Treasure

This is an exquisitely done movie. The story grabs you and pulls you into the lives of it's main characters so well that you almost wish you knew them in real life.

I loved this movie. But it bothered me that I.C.E. was shown as a villain because it is not. Immigration laws are in place in the US for an important reason, just like in every other country. Even Mexico has zero tolerance for illegal immigrants, but they encourage their own to come here and break our laws as illegal immigrants.

The perspective of this movie is one you don't get to see very often unless you have been through the experience of being an illegal immigrant. I really appreciated being able to better understand that situation, but I still support our country's laws. Without our laws, we would not be America.