The Visitor (2008)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I had heard so much about this film being excellent that I was skeptical. But in this instance, this film lived up to the hype. The acting is excellent. The story is so believable and slice of life. Richard Jenkins is always a pleasure to watch. He plays Walter with the finesse and sublime precision that only he could. I actually was surprised more so by the other actors. Danai Gurira stars in one of my favorite shows, The Walking Dead. Seeing Danai in another role made me appreciate her all the more. She and Haaz Sleiman are actually what give this film heart and seeing their characters adjust to Walter. The friendship between Tarek and Walter is the catalyst for the film. But Hiam Abbass steals the movie from everyone. No idea why I had never heard of her. But her "Mouna" with all the nuances of a mother fearing for her son is what everyone should have been talking about. This movie was a rare occasion when I was left wanting to know more and could have watched another 30 mins to see what happens next for these characters.

Walter, an old professor,  goes to NY where he used to live for attending the presentation. However, a couple lives in his apartment. The Visitor is a human drama that is slow-pacing but gradually delivers emotion.My mother recommended this to me and I  egan to watch but at first, I don't feel sympathy for Walter because he looks solemn and spiritless.  However, as this movie goes, he becomes attractive.  Tarek, one half of the couple plays an African dram and Walter starts playing it. I'm very impressive with this.  Through meeting him, Walter finds a hobby and changes.I've learned three things from The Visitor.  First one is that running across someone changes our life. In this movie, it's Walter and the couple.Second is about issues of immigrants.  Because of trifling thing, Tarek gets arrested and forced to exile. I think after 9.11, U.S. government becomes restrict for immigrants. I'm sad about this problem.  I hope there will be a country every ethnic lives free.Last is Richard Jenkins. This is the biggest fruition. Honestly speaking, I don't like him so much before watching this. Perhaps its because of the characters that he've played. I didn't feel any sympathy or attraction with him at that time. However, this time, I became a big fan of him! He seems ordinary but actually, he isn't. Now, I find it his special ability.In spite of these good points, there're some disappointing things. The relationship between Walter and Tarek's mother is unnecessary. And, it's a little bit slow-pacing. If I were sleepy, I would sleep during watching this.But as a human drama, it's well-made and   enough to be satisfied.  Especially, I do like the scene that Walter plays the dram. Though it's amusing somewhat, it also brings his passion to audience. The last scene is really moving.

Every time I saw a movie with Richard Jenkins, I asked myself why on earth a wonderfully talented actor like him never plays leading roles. He is one of my favorite actors and this film proves why.The Visitor is a well made film that covers a disturbing but very important subject, which is a sad reality in many countries, specially in the U.S. and Europe. Yes, it made me cry. But it also made me happy because it shows what I believe, i.e. that there some Walters (played by Richard Jenkins) out there that are not indifferent and, without knowing it, are willing to be moved inside and by opening themselves to a different reality experience a broadening of their horizons. It's also a film about solitude, a man in search of a meaning for his life and the apparent impossibility to get what one wants, which makes us reflect about what things are the most important and what we actually should live for.Despite being "simple", it's one of the best films I have seen in the last years.

Sensitive or condescending, depending on your point of view, Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor" stars Richard Jenkins as a grumpy, white, elderly American who cuts himself off from other human beings and begins to fester in his own morbid isolation.Underlit, obvious and poorly shot, the film then watches as Jenkins connects with a series of ethnic minorities, all of whom are denied the privileges afforded to white power, and all of whom face unfair persecution in the wake of both 9/11 and George Bush's subsequent roll out of liberty-squashing, executive measures. Much of the film watches as Jenkins tentatively dips his toes in foreign cultures, learns to appreciate the simple joys of other human beings and learns to love Islamic immigrants.Jenkins' forced isolation, a kind of self persecution which he applies to himself due to the passing of his wife, is then mirrored to the "actual" isolation/persecution suffered by ethnic minorities at the hands of white power.While the film does well to humanize Palestinians, Syrians and Senegalese, there's something patronizing about framing this tale as a white man's journey. And for all its heavy handed symbolism, it's a simple line of dialogue in the film which touches us the most: "Don't forget about me in here," a Palestinian-Syrian man pleads, as he's locked away in a windowless detention centre. Though he spends his life writing about global conflict, Jenkins, a university professor, has never before come face to face with something so shocking: a vast power with the ability to render anyone invisible.6/10 – Worth one viewing.