This film hits just about every sweet spot possible: it is Icelandic and shot on black and white stock; it is a quirky road movie set in an unlikely place (Iceland); and it has a cute dog and features characters who knit. What is not love? If there had been cats and Ian McShane in a supporting role, it might have got five stars.
However, writer-director Hilmar Oddsson doesn’t need to pander to specific tastes because it’s clear he knows exactly what he’s doing with this happy-sad comedy-drama, a film that hovers on the emotional cusp between tones with consummate skill. The story unfolds in long, languid, static takes, signalling both a kind of arthouse melancholy that at the same time reads as faintly comical, setting up a frame for funny business to take place within its confines, provided the timing is just right.
