The Visitor
Directed by Thomas McCarthy. US. 2007. PG-13. Running time: 108 min.
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I'm afraid that describing the bare bones of "The Visitor" — in which a 60-ish widowed professor, played by character actor Richard Jenkins, reconnects with some previously lost part of himself after he befriends two illegal immigrants living in New York — only makes it sound like the kind of movie you drag yourself to see out of a sense of duty, one of those nice little pictures that's so timid it's incapable of either offending or exhilarating. But "The Visitor," written and directed by Tom McCarthy, who made his debut with the understated and beautifully shaped "The Station Agent" in 2003, is pleasurable on so many levels that what it's about becomes far less important than what it is. In the multiplex universe — a place where, increasingly, marketing campaigns and marquee names are more important than movie craftsmanship — it's sometimes easy to forget that acting and filmmaking are two of the things we go to the movies for in the first place. "The Visitor" was made by a group of people who apparently grasp that simple but elusive truth. Eloquent and unassuming, it's a picture that hits home precisely because it doesn't overreach its grasp.(Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com)
Click here to continue reading Stephanie Zacharek's review.
Click here to read Nathan Rabin's review on The Onion AV Club.