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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
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74
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48
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56
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82
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Beaches of Agnes, The
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58
Easy Virtue
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89
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Under Our Skin
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Unmistaken Child
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Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
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57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Visitor, The
Overture Films
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language
Starring
Richard Jenkins,
Haaz Sleiman,
Hiam Abbass,
and
Maggie Moore
In a world of 6 billion people, it takes only one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy's follow-up to his award-winning directorial debut "The Station Agent," we get to know Walter Vale, a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City. Through newfound connections with virtual strangers, Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life. (Overture Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Thomas McCarthy
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Thomas McCarthy
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 7, 2008
Theatrical: April 11, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
103 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
The Visitor, is, if anything, more imaginative and touching than his first.

100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
As a writer-director, McCarthy, like the characters and the places that he suffuses with emotion, has poetry in him - and he knows how to let it out. He has a talent for demarcating those spaces in which characters can become whoever they want to be.

91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It works on several levels, and stands out as a wistful meditation on the psychological cost of 9/11.

90
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Eloquent and unassuming, it's a picture that hits home precisely because it doesn't overreach its grasp.

90
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The curious thing about The Visitor is that even as it goes more or less where you think it will, it still manages to surprise you along the way.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
A heartfelt human drama that sneaks up and floors you.

88
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
McCarthy's flawless casting may be the film's greatest strength: Veteran character actor Jenkins and his costars vanish into their characters -- their performances are so subtle and unforced that they don't feel like performances at all.

88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
It is one of the year's most intriguing dramas, with a quartet of powerful performances.

88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Best movie I've seen so far this year? Hands down, it's Tom McCarthy's superb The Visitor, which turns Richard Jenkins, one of the best character actors in the business, into a full-fledged star.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Jenkins and The Visitor”make lovely music together. It’s a case of a veteran character actor slipping on a leading role like the most comfortable pair of pants in the world.

88
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
This is a film of our times - paranoid, heartbroken, disillusioned - and the rare recent American movie whose characters react the way actual people might.

83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Like few of his filmmaking peers, McCarthy understands and respects the power of quiet, and how a whisper can be as explosive as a shout.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
This audaciously issues-loaded indie drama works, improbably and entirely, on account of the marvelous, often familiar-looking, rarely starring character actor Richard Jenkins and his perfect performance as a stodgy, widowed economics professor.

80
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
A compelling and illuminating story of four people who form an unlikely and momentary friendship of considerable depth.

80
Variety
John Anderson
A combination immigrant/resurrection tale, Visitor tilts toward the soulful rather than the political, and could be this year's humanistic indie hit.

80
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Gives viewers a perceptive, deeply personal take on the timeless immigrant narrative, in which the most epic journey is finally one of self-discovery.

80
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Powerful second film by writer-director Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent).

80
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
An unassuming but quietly heartbreaking drama.

80
Empire
Anna Smith
The tension dips occasionally but stick with it and you'l be richly rewarded.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
The Visitor is a small movie, but its emotions could not be writ any larger.

75
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
The combined effect is, as I say, small but sincere. McCarthy may prove to have something bigger in him, or he may be a miniaturist content to build little stories and fill them with all the humanity they can bear. If that's the case, there are far less worthy ways to spend a career.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
At first glance Walter isn't a guy you want to spend two hours with. But by the end of the film, you don't want to see him go. Jenkins is like that: He sneaks up on you and steals your heart with light-fingered skill.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
This is a simple story of human drama that provides an incentive to spend a couple of hours in a movie theater during a spring that has not provided many such reasons.

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The Visitor tells of renewal through love. Its song is tinged with sadness, but stirring all the same.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Definitely a film that marches to its own drumbeat.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Jason McBride
The actor - like everyone else in this tedious yet affecting film - rises well above his soft-headed, solipsistic material, turning in a performance of nuanced delicacy.

60
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Both director and cast exhibit the dedication of those who truly believe in the message at hand. But with so much earnestness onscreen, the message occasionally gets in the way of the movie itself.

58
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
McCarthy is so careful not to take a political stand that his film seems neutered by good intentions. In the spirit of squishy humanism, he soft-pedals a hard-hitting topic.

50
Village Voice
Scott Foundas
McCarthy unquestionably means well, but he's made one of those incredibly naïve movies that gives liberals a bad name, and which does more to regress the sociopolitical discourse than advance it.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 48 User Votes
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