The indy film “The Visitor” was released in April 2008, but in Los Angeles it is playing in very few theaters, which is mystifying to me. I saw it tonight at a small theater in Manhattan Beach and it’s one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. So far it has won at the Toronto Film Festival, Sundance, South by Southwest Festival and the Miami Film Festival. I sure missed this one on my radar screen.
If you haven't seen it, the film is about a worn-down-by-life college professor and his synchronistic encounter in the world of illegal immigrants in New York City. Set predominately in Greenwich Village, the story, the acting, the filmography, and the music are all incredible. The website says, “In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s follow-up to his award winning directorial debut “The Station Agent,” Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) stars as Walter Vale, a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City. Through new-found connections with virtual strangers, Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life.”
I don’t want to spoil this film with further descriptions. When I saw it tonight, I did not know one thing about it except friends highly recommended it—and so do I.
