Land Ho!

Two old friends rekindle their sense of fun in this road movie across Iceland.


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  • Directors Martha Stephens, Aaron Katz
  • Producers Mynette Louie, Sara Murphy, Christina Jennings
  • Screenwriters Martha Stephens, Aaron Katz
  • With Paul Eenhoorn, Earl Lynn Nelson
  • USA-Iceland 2014
  • 96 mins
  • UK distribution Sony Pictures Releasing International

You are invited to join two retirees as they fly from their homes in the US for a holiday driving around Iceland in a rented SUV. Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) is a grizzled former Marine with a taste for loud Hawaiian shirts and a propensity for garrulous sexism. His former brother-in-law Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) is a sad-sack Australian, financially ruined and emotionally distraught after the failure of his last marriage. But as these unlikely travelling companions roam the Icelandic landscape, reflecting poignantly on their lives while still managing to cause some good-natured havoc on the way, co-directors Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz’s delicate and heart-warming comedy soon beguiles us. With wonderfully nuanced performances by Nelson and Eenhoorn, this is a funny, bittersweet portrait of the frustrations and consolations of ageing, underpinned by a boyish sense of mischief.

Edward Lawrenson