Product Description
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In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to
change your life. Sixty-two-year-old Walter Vale is walking
through his life. Having lost his passion for teaching and
writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to
play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to
attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young couple
has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate
scam, Tarek, a Syrian man, and Zainab, his Senegalese girlfriend,
have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series of tests of the
heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him.
Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on
teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The
instrument's exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter's faltering
spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs
and Central Park drum circles. As the friendship between the two
men deepens, the differences in culture, age and tempera
.com
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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
Stills from The Visitor (click for larger image)
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Beyond The Visitor ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/anchorbay/Visitor6_largejpg.jpg )
On DVD ( /gp/product/B0015OKWKI/ref=d_ap_TheVisitor_1 )
Soundtrack CD ( /gp/product/B0015I2OG4/ref=d_ap_TheVisitor_2 )
Also directed by Tom McCarthy (
/gp/product/B0001WTWDI/ref=d_ap_TheVisitor_2 )