Colin responds to this with more than a little bemusement. Mitch responds, as he will, by describing how great it’s going to be, placing special emphasis on all the especially-good-in-Iceland food they’ll gorge on. Unimpressed, Colin remarks, “I don’t like lobster.”
Well, too bad: the pull of Mitch is irresistible. And soon enough, the two older fellas are in Reykjavik. Iceland, in this, functions rather like the Scottish highlands in the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger movie "I Know Where I’m Going:" a very nearly enchanted land full of unusual geographic features that allows its characters to evolve to a new level. The comparison risks overselling what this movie’s about, though; while "I Know" is a grand romance, "Land Ho!" is not all that invested in narrative momentum; it’s of a modest, anecdotal scale. The environment is depicted beautifully, and the duo’s adventures, and occasional bickering, culminate in an episode that gives Colin’s character an opportunity for some healing. All the while, Mitch is his irrepressible self, throwing money around, advising a female cousin (once-removed) and her traveling friend to buy some “feminine” clothes for a dinner that evening, asking awkward personal questions of a honeymooning couple, and so on. He’ll have to reveal the vulnerability behind his brashness eventually, we know; as it happens, that vulnerability doesn’t collapse Mitch’s personality so much as justify it, an interesting route for the filmmakers to take.
Co-directors Katz and Stevens (Stevens, who directed Nelson in the indie “Pilgrim Song,” sold Katz on the collaboration by merely suggesting the idea of putting Nelson and Eenhorn in Iceland together) collect oodles of funny and lovely moments, merely recording their performers interacting with the environment, paying tribute to the natural beauty of Iceland (which, in my own experience, really IS a magical setting), while also presenting their actors/characters to the audience with real "what a piece of work is man" awe. "Land Ho!" is both a small film and an unabashed wannabe crowd pleaser, but it’s also one whose subtle capturing of behavior and longing resonates with clarity that stays with you.
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