STUDIO: Starz/Anchor Bay
RELEASE DATE: October 7, 2008
STARRING: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Dania Gurira, and Hiam Abbass
WRITTEN BY: Thomas McCarthy
DIRECTED BY: Thomas McCarthy
FEATURES: An Inside Look At The Visitor
Audio Commentary Featuring Director Tom McCarthy And Actor Richard Jenkins
Playing The Djembe
Deleted Scenes
Trailer

Perhaps more than any film this year, the excellent The Visitor gives the viewer the impression that the characters live and breathe outside of the frame and the running time of the story you're being told. I loved the film when I saw it in theaters earlier this year and my adoration for what writer/director Thomas McCarthy, actor Richard Jenkins, and actress Hiam Abbass accomplished with The Visitor has only grown in a second viewing on DVD. In a year that has been darker at the cinema than any in at least a decade, The Visitor is one of the few bright spots, an obvious choice for top ten lists that should hit like a tidal wave in just two months. Richard Jenkins anchors one of the best narrative films of the year, a movie that played to standing ovations on the film festival circuit and was one of the true word-of-mouth sensations of 2008. No one expected The Visitor to pop into the box office top ten, but that's exactly what it did, buoyed by good word of mouth that should also help the film find a loyal and thankful audience on DVD. It's hard to imagine anyone not falling for the charms of The Visitor.

Jenkins (Six Feet Under, Burn After Reading) gives one of the best performances of the year as Walter Vale in The Visitor. At first glance, Walter is just your average stuffy college professor, but there's much more to this guy that meets the eye. He's a gentle soul with a power for compassion that a lot of people don't have. He's sparked to life when he reluctantly comes to New York for a presentation he doesn't really want to give and finds a couple of immigrants squatting in his apartment. Some nefarious soul has rented the abode that Walter technically owns without his knowledge. Instead of kicking out these clearly kind people, Walter decides to let them stay until they find a place of their own to live. Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira) change Walter's life forever, first by exploring his creative side through drum lessons and then by exploring his passionate through a tragic event that you'll never see coming.

Jenkins, who has been a stellar character actor for years, has said that this is the part of his career, the one he was hoping would come along eventually and he's Oscar-worthy in the role. Every note Jenkins hits is startlingly believable. The idea of a lonely old professor playing a drum in Central Park sounds ridiculous on paper - like a Lifetime TV movie and a bad one at that - but Jenkins makes it real. And it's that foundation set by him in just the early scenes that allows what happens next to have the dramatic weight that it does.

The Visitor is about a lot of things - music, immigration, the chance that drives this crazy world, and the little decisions we make that can have a ripple effect all the way to the other continents. But McCarthy and Jenkins never lose track of their characters. The Visitor is never repetitive or preachy. It's a character study. Walter, Tarek, Zainab, and Mouna (Tarek's mother, played by the luminous and also nomination-worthy Hiam Abbass) all feel like real people. 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.

Starz/Anchor Bay is not exactly one of the most notable DVD studios but they do an excellent job with what is easily their best film in years. The video and audio on the standard edition (there is a Blu-Ray version but it was not available for review) are better than average and the film comes with an impressive collection of special features. The highlight is a commentary track with McCarthy and Jenkins, two men who deserve nomination in the coming months for screenplay and actor, respectively. The Visitor has the potential to be this year's Away From Her, a film that didn't get a wide audience in its early-in-the-year theatrical release but rode its buzz all the way to major awards and an Oscar nomination. Jump on the bandwagon for The Visitor before it gets away from you.