By Brandon Fibbs, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Jun. 6--"The Band's Visit" is a charming and tender meditation on loneliness and the essential need for human connection.

By Daniel Neman, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va. Mar. 22--In the best movies, the tone of the film matches the mood of the characters. In "The Band's Visit," the movie and the characters feel lonely and sad. Which is a little odd, because it's a comedy. A sad and lonely comedy.

By JONATHAN RICHARDS The Band's Visit, cultural detente, PG-13, in Arabic, Hebrew, and English with subtitles, Regal DeVargas, 988-2775, 3.5 chiles The eight members of an Egyptian police orchestra, toting their instruments and dressed in ill-fitting uniforms of robin's-egg blue, arrive at a regional airport in Israel for a gig at the opening of a nearby Arab cultural center.

By Frank Gabrenya, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Mar. 21--Cultural exchanges between sometimes-hostile nations represent one of humanity's better ideas for easing tension. Assuming, of course, that someone meets the other nation's artists at the airport.

By Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun Mar. 14--With The Band's Visit, Israeli director Eran Kolirin has made a rapturously low-key comedy about an Egyptian ceremonial police band that flies to Israel to help open an Arab cultural center but arrives at the wrong town.