The Visitor

A lonesome widower and college economics professor finds his mundane existence suddenly shaken up when he befriends a pair of illegal immigrants, one of whom has recently been threatened with deportation by U.S. immigration authorities, in the sophomore feature from The Station Agent director Tom ...more

Richard Jenkins proves why he is one of America's greatest character actors with his tour de force performance in The Visitor. As a widowed college professor in Connecticut who meanders through life unable to connect with anyone or anything, especially his piano, which so happens to be the instrument his late wife used to teach to aspiring musicians, Jenkins is a study in subdued. His Walter Vale rarely displays any sort of emotion. He's a loner, but he certainly isn't a rebel. He doesn't ...more

Like his first film, The Station Agent, Tom McCarthy's elegantly structured sophomore effort, The Visitor, tells a very simple story about a human being inching his way out of a self-imposed emotional cocoon. Richard Jenkins stars as professor Walter Vale, a middle-aged widower going through the motions at his job, as well as in his life. Aside from a diminishing desire to learn piano, Walter lives without any passion -- not even his young eager students touch him. Jenkins plays the character ...more

The Visitor
Nominee - 81st Oscars®:
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Richard Jenkins