Godland

Directed by Hlynur Pálmason, Godland follows a Danish priest (Elliott Crosset Hove’s Lucas) as he makes an arduous journey to Iceland to start up his own parish – with complications ensuing after Lucas begins to butt heads with several locals. Filmmaker Pálmason, working from his own screenplay, kicks Godland off with an attention-grabbing opening that effectively establishes the almost insurmountable nature of Lucas’ task – with the promising vibe heightened by Pálmason’s predictably stark, eye-catching visuals. It’s disappointing to note, then, that one’s interest and enthusiasm is slowly-but-surely drained by an exceedingly (and excessively) deliberate midsection, as Pálmason delivers an uneventful, meandering narrative that contains distressingly little in the way of drama or forward momentum – which, despite a continuing emphasis on breathtaking imagery, does ensure that it becomes more and more difficult to work up any real enthusiasm for the various characters’ exploits. (And it doesn’t help, either, that the film’s animals are mistreated to a sometimes upsetting degree.) And although the third act boasts a few instances of much-appreciated conflict, Godland has, by that point, long-since cemented its place as an arms-length endeavor that should’ve been a full hour shorter.

** out of ****