Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A character study drowning in liberal guilt.

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 23, 2008

A beautiful, quiet, measured movie about the death of some American values since September 11, 2001.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 29, 2008

The tension dips occasionally but stick with it and you'll be richly rewarded.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 18, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 2, 2008

The film becomes less about the suffering of immigrants who have never enjoyed the embrace of Ellis Island than the righteous indignation of a liberal intelligentsia raging against its own powerlessness.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 25, 2008

The story of Vale's revitalization and his grief is compelling but simple, free of any sentimentality, and marked by powerful performances from Jenkins and Hiam Abbass, who plays Mouna Khalil, Tarek's mother.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 25, 2008

Definitely a film that marches to its own drumbeat.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 25, 2008

The script here is very strong.

Full Review | Apr 21, 2008

[Richard Jenkins] gets the role of a lifetime in this powerful second film by writer-director Thomas McCarthy.

| Apr 21, 2008

Richard 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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

This gifted writer/director knows how to illuminate those moments in which people realize they have become essential to each other -- that each person's life has been gently changed by the other's presence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

McCarthy puts a mark on each film, identifying it as distinctly his own. A couple more like them, and he'll be knighted an auteur.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 18, 2008

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

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

These characters feel like they exist before the cameras roll and after the credits are done, and it is the audience who are the true visitors, inspired by just getting to spend some time with them.

| Apr 18, 2008

The Visitor gives viewers a perceptive, deeply personal take on the timeless immigrant narrative, in which the most epic journey is finally one of self-discovery.

Full Review | Apr 17, 2008

Both halves of the story ring true in their way, but they don't ring out in harmony.

| Apr 17, 2008

All the main characters are inherently decent, and the humanity of their saga, which centers on illegal immigration, makes for a deeply moving film.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 11, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 11, 2008

Both director and cast exhibit the dedication of those who truly believe in the message at hand.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 11, 2008