The Critics: The Washington Post's Best of 2008

A story of rich character development and emotional interplay. 'The Visitor' continues director Thomas McCarthy's ('Station Agent') welcome fascination with people who have emotionally removed themselves from their own lives, becoming supporting characters in their own stories.
Richard Jenkins does a fabulous job expressing a largely internal part as a widower and unhappy professor who is awaiting the spark that makes life worth living. How and where he finds it could be something straight from a thriller, but it is crafted into an emotional drama that often times elicits big, welcome laughs.
This is really a story of finding what makes your life worth living before it is too late, and emotionally investing in it fully.

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Spends most of its time being a bombastic, flamboyant and theatrical caricature piece only to culminate in a final act that appeals to emotions. There are better biopics about spokepeople for civil rights that shine their subjects in a respectable light that entices sympathy and bridges understanding. Furthermore, this isn't Penn's penultimate performance- one need only return to 'I am Sam,' 'Mystic River,' or 'Sweet and Lowdown' to appreciate his real talent as an actor. That said, Elfman's score is well-crafted, and the performances by Hirsch, Brolin, and Franco all deserve the praise for bringing real, relatable characters and depth to this piece.

When you strip away the performances, this is a directionless movie of vignettes. That's not to say it is poorly directed, Leigh is brilliant here, but what was the plot? Where was the plot?
But setting this infraction aside, how could this movie not completely win you over? Hawkins is marvelous as a school teacher who makes a daily, conscious decision to look at the light side of life. Even in the face of emotional turmoil, she creates happiness. And that is the heart of the story. How she chooses to do it and be who she is while those around her are so easily beset with negative outbursts of emotion is truly inspirational. Marsan is also brilliant, and his character's seething juxtaposition to Poppy makes her magnificence all the more pronounced.

Naturally conceived and executed, this film about a recovering addict's return to life in the days before her sister's wedding is a terrific examination of what momentous occasions do to inner emotions.
I loved the concept and the organic feel of the whole thing, but that wedding theme! It was never explained and didn't seem to match any character's tendencies, and the reception just dragged on too long. In the end we dropped in and out of these characters lives, but I would have liked to stick around for what it was all building toward, emotionally. I guess sometimes in life, as the movie was trying to depict, everything doesn't come together in a massive climax and resolution.