Passes the Bechdel test

The Visitor

Name: The Visitor
Released: 2007

2007. Directed by Tom McCarthy, written by Tom McCarthy.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
6 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 174.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3, though someone marked that rating as dubious.

The film

Lonely widower Professor Walter Vale has a boring life in Connecticut. He teaches only one class at the local college and is trying to learn how to play the piano, despite lacking the necessary musical talent. Walter is assigned to attend a conference about Global Policy and Development at New York University and give a lecture about a paper he co-authored. When he arrives at his New York apartment, he finds Tarek Khalil, a Syrian musician, and Zainab, a Senegalese street vendor, living there. He sympathizes with the illegal immigrants' situation and invites the couple to stay with him. Tarek invites him to go to his gig at Jules Live Jazz. Walter is fascinated with his African drum and Tarek offers to teach Walter how to play it. However, after an incident in the subway, Tarek is arrested and sent to a detention center for illegal immigrants. Walter has just hired a lawyer to defend Tarek when, out of the blue, Tarek's mother Mouna arrives at the apartment from Michigan. He invites her to stay in Tarek's room, and while trying to get Tarek released, Walter and Mouna get close to each other and he finds reasons to feel life can be exciting and worth living again.

Released: 23 May 2008
Genres: Drama
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 7.6 / 10
Metascore: 79 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 19 wins & 35 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Walter 324 lines, man
Tarek 183 lines, man
Mouna 172 lines, woman
Zainab 96 lines, woman
Mr. Shah 32 lines, man
Barbara 14 lines, woman
Jacob 14 lines, man
Guard 12 lines, man
Charles 10 lines, man
Nasim 8 lines, man

Full cast, 22 people

Richard Jenkins as Prof. Walter Vale
Haaz Sleiman as Tarek Khalil
Danai Gurira as Zainab
Hiam Abbass as Mouna Khalil
Marian Seldes as Barbara
Maggie Moore as Karen
Michael Cumpsty as Charles
Bill McHenry as Darin
Richard Kind as Jacob
Tzahi Moskovitz as Zev
Amir Arison as Mr. Shah
Neal Lerner as Martin Revere
Ramon Fernandez as Cop #1
Frank Pando as Cop #2
Waleed Zuaiter as Omar
Deborah Rush as Upper Eastside Woman
Ashley Springer as Student
Laith Nakli as Nasim
Jacqueline Brogan as Waiter
Walter Mudu as Ronald Cole
Yevgeniy Dekhtyar as Slavic Man
Earl Baker Jr. as Lester James

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 174

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 4	16	11
5 to 8	0	11
9 to 12	0	19
13 to 16	5	4
17 to 20	0	0
21 to 24	0	0
25 to 28	0	2
29 to 32	17	53
33 to 36	11	16
37 to 40	3	3
41 to 44	0	14
45 to 48	0	1
49 to 52	0	1
53 to 56	7	40
57 to 60	2	27
61 to 64	3	4
65 to 68	0	37
69 to 72	17	27
73 to 76	6	37
77 to 80	4	3
81 to 84	11	21
85 to 88	0	9
89 to 92	3	29
93 to 96	0	0
97 to 100	0	0
101 to 104	15	42
105 to 108	8	8
109 to 112	25	34
113 to 116	3	6
117 to 120	23	26
121 to 124	32	3
125 to 128	11	25
129 to 132	18	17
133 to 136	0	1
137 to 140	0	0
141 to 144	0	0
145 to 148	11	20
149 to 152	6	6
153 to 156	8	6
157 to 160	26	24
161 to 164	5	24
165 to 168	14	10
169 to 172	2	1
173 to 174	0	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

ZAINAB: Yes. I made it. UPPER EAST SIDE WOMAN: How much? ZAINAB: Thirty-five dollars. UPPER EAST SIDE WOMAN: Will you take thirty?

ZAINAB: Oh. MOUNA: Hello, Zainab. ZAINAB: It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Khalil. MOUNA: Please. Call me Mouna.

MOUNA: So what is in Staten Island? ZAINAB: I don't know. We never got off. We just would go to the other side and then come back.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 33 are women's.

312 lines from women, 622 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

6 women and 13 men in the cast. 5 women and 11 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 44 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 32% of the words (2,298), men 68% (4,970). Women have 33% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 37% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Tom McCarthy (man)
Written by: Tom McCarthy (man)
Produced by: John Woldenberg (gender not listed), Michael London (man), Mary Jane Skalski (woman)
Shot by: Oliver Bokelberg (man)
Edited by: Tom McArdle (man)
Music by: Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (man)
Production design by: John Paino (man)
Costumes by: Melissa Toth (woman)
Cast by: Paul Schnee (man), Stéphane Foenkinos (man), Billy Hopkins (man), Kerry Barden (man), Suzanne Smith Crowley (woman)