Critics Applaud "The Visitor"

Apparently, I’m not the only one who would urge you to see The Visitor.

It’s the Critic’s Pick from The New York Times’ A.O. Scott, who wrote:

It is possible to imagine a version of this story – the tale of a square, middle-aged white man liberated from his uptightness by an infusion of Third World soulfulness, attached to an exposé of the cruelty of post-9/11 immigration policies – that would be obvious and sentimental, an exercise in cultural condescension and liberal masochism. Indeed, it’s nearly impossible to imagine it any other way.

And yet, astonishingly enough, Mr. McCarthy has. Much as The Station Agent nimbly evaded the obstacles of cuteness and willful eccentricity it had strewn in its own path, so does The Visitor, with impressive grace and understatement, resist potential triteness and phony uplift.

Lou Lumenick from The New York Post liked it too: “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.

As do a host of other journalists.

Other folks at the ACLU do as well. As part of Participant’s social action campaign for The Visitor, the ACLU has helped spark discussion about the issues this film addresses at screenings across the country – in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, L.A., Miami, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Go see it, and let us know what you think too.