In 'Land Ho!', Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson), a retired American surgeon who smokes pot and who calls women 'broads', inveigles his staider Australian former brother-in-law Colin (Paul Eenhoorn, who has the kind of familiar face that will have you thinking "Oh, wasn't he in... that thing... with the thing?") into taking a trip to Iceland, where the pair drive around in a massive car and have conversations. And that is about it as far as the plot goes.
Judging by the naturalistic style of speaking (repeats, pauses etc), a lot of the conversation is ad-libbed. This doesn't work so well when other characters are involved - the segment where the retirees spend time with two much younger women is especially trying, largely because Karrie Crouse delivers her lines in such a drawling monotone the viewer has to resist the urge to yell at the screen "WAKE UP, WOMAN!" But when sharing the screen with nobody but each other, Nelson and Eenhoorn well convey the easy rapport between two men who have known each other for decades. I like the fact that the film avoids the big revelation so common in this sort of production (I was braced for one of the men to announce "This is going to be my last trip - the doctors have given me six months" or similar, but it didn't happen). The film does end rather abruptly, though.
What is very apparent is the amount of product-placement: the shot of an Icelandair 'plane, the close-ups of Lonely Planet's Iceland guidebook, the mention of a real-life Reykjavík restaurant called 'Dill'. Not to mention the Icelandic scenery, lovingly shown in all its bleak interestingness. Unfortunately the 2014 London Film Festival showing I attended cut the credits (grr!) so I don't know whether Icelandair, Lonely Planet, Dill and/or the Icelandic Ministry of Tourism actually *did* sponsor the film; if they did, it would be interesting to know what came first: the idea for the film, or the sponsorship?
Judging by the naturalistic style of speaking (repeats, pauses etc), a lot of the conversation is ad-libbed. This doesn't work so well when other characters are involved - the segment where the retirees spend time with two much younger women is especially trying, largely because Karrie Crouse delivers her lines in such a drawling monotone the viewer has to resist the urge to yell at the screen "WAKE UP, WOMAN!" But when sharing the screen with nobody but each other, Nelson and Eenhoorn well convey the easy rapport between two men who have known each other for decades. I like the fact that the film avoids the big revelation so common in this sort of production (I was braced for one of the men to announce "This is going to be my last trip - the doctors have given me six months" or similar, but it didn't happen). The film does end rather abruptly, though.
What is very apparent is the amount of product-placement: the shot of an Icelandair 'plane, the close-ups of Lonely Planet's Iceland guidebook, the mention of a real-life Reykjavík restaurant called 'Dill'. Not to mention the Icelandic scenery, lovingly shown in all its bleak interestingness. Unfortunately the 2014 London Film Festival showing I attended cut the credits (grr!) so I don't know whether Icelandair, Lonely Planet, Dill and/or the Icelandic Ministry of Tourism actually *did* sponsor the film; if they did, it would be interesting to know what came first: the idea for the film, or the sponsorship?