“’At last!’ reads the white-on-black text that opens Where to Land, as if heralding the arrival of writer-director Hal Hartley’s first film in over 10 years. The film centers on a man, Joseph Fulton (played by longtime Hartley collaborator Bill Sage), who feels like an obvious avatar for the director. Joseph isn’t dying, but, owing to a series of mundane misunderstandings, some people in his life think that he is. At 58, semi-retired from directing romantic comedies, he decides that he wants to become the assistant groundskeeper at a church cemetery near his apartment in the Upper West Side. This newfound interest in husbandry—“the care, cultivation, and maintenance of natural resources,” per the church’s head groundskeeper, Leonard (Robert John Burke, Sage’s Simple Men co-star)—comes not out of financial hardship, nor a charitable impulse. According to Joseph, he just wants to work with his hands, to be outside, and to feel tired at the end of the day.
But Joseph is also having his last will and testament drawn up, and his actress girlfriend, Muriel (Kim Taff), puts two and two together and begins to think he’s preparing for his imminent demise. This suspicion is seemingly confirmed when Joseph’s niece, Veronica (Katelyn Sparks), who works as his assistant, finds an unopened letter from the hospital on his desk. Proceeding as a series of frank, contemplative discussions between Joseph and his various interlocutors—covering religion, spirituality, politics, and philosophy—Where to Land opts for quiet moments of connection, raising questions rather than giving definitive answers. The film’s wistful, sincere, and never maudlin contemplation of impermanence and mortality suggest an artist in a reflective mood, trying to imagine what the world will look like after he’s gone.” -Seth Katz, Slant Magazine
