Review of The Band's Visit (2007) by V H — 31 Mar 2008

[i][color=black][font=Tahoma]The Band?s Visit[/font][/color][/i][color=black][font=Tahoma] begins with the eight members of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, a group consisting of mostly older mustachioed men wearing powder blue band uniforms, arriving in Israel from Egypt to perform at the opening of an Arab Cultural Center and realizing that no one is at the airport to meet their flight. After several unsuccessful attempts to phone for assistance, the band's leader, a serious middle-aged man named Tawfiq, decides that rather than waiting for help they should just take the bus. He assigns the task of getting directions to the band's youngest member, a handsome, girl-crazy, Chet Baker-loving trumpeter/violinist named Haled. Unfortunately, Haled is more focused on his attempts to woo the girl at the information booth by crooning "My Funny Valentine" than he is on the task at hand, and the band ends up stranded overnight in a tiny town in the middle of the desert, far from their similarly-named intended destination.[/font][/color].

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Fortunately, they happen upon a small restaurant run by a tough but beautiful 40-ish divorcee named Dina who serves them lunch and, as there are no hotels in town, finds them all places to sleep. Three men will stay in the restaurant itself, three others will stay with a customer named Itzik who has a newborn baby and a rocky marriage, and Tawfiq and Haled will stay in the spare room of Dina?s apartment.[/font][/color].

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Despite his complete lack of interest and his unwaveringly punctilious demeanor, Dina has her eye on Tawfiq from the start. At first I thought she was trying to get him to like her just to see if she could, but it soon becomes clear that her interest in him is genuine. She invites him on a date of sorts and though it starts out awkwardly, the two of them eventually bond over shawarma and coffee and shared tales of lost love.[/font][/color].

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Meanwhile, Haled, stuck home alone in Dina's apartment, decides to hit the town, such as it is. He bums a ride to the local roller rink with a couple of guys and their dates. One of the guys, who's apparently been fixed up by his friend, is so socially inept that his hapless date ends up sitting off by herself crying. In steps ladies? man Haled with pantomimed step-by-step instructions on what to do to make things right. The shy guy tentatively apes his every move. It?s a great wordless scene, played for sweetness rather than laughs.[/font][/color].

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Things are equally uncomfortable over at Itzik?s house where three band members sit in uneasy silence as he and his wife bicker and his in-laws complain in Hebrew about their unwelcome Egyptian guests. I don?t remember exactly what prompts it, but at some point one of the men starts singing George Gershwin?s ?Summertime? and before long the others join in. For a little while it seems like the solution to the whole Middle East conflict just might involve old jazz standards.[/font][/color].

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Though the overriding theme of [i]The Band?s Visit[/i] is loneliness, the film is far from depressing. It has just enough light humor to offset its underlying sadness. None of its characters wallow in self-pity, they just accept their lives the way they are: rife with isolation and disappointment.[/font][/color].

[i][color=black][font=Tahoma]The Band?s Visit[/font][/color][/i][color=black][font=Tahoma] was Israel?s original submission to the Academy Awards in the foreign film category but it was rejected for having too much dialogue in English. Though the band members speak Arabic to each other and the Israelis speak Hebrew to each other, they all speak English with varying degrees of proficiency when talking to members of the other group. The weird thing is that the entire movie is subtitled in English, even the parts that are already in English. The even weirder thing is that I kept catching myself reading the redundant subtitles.[/font][/color].

[i][color=black][font=Tahoma]The Band?s Visit[/font][/color][/i][color=black][font=Tahoma] is one of those quiet films where nothing much ever happens to a cast of unremarkable characters. In other words, it?s my kind of movie. Huzzah![/font][/color].