The result packs all the hilarity of a museum installation on The Semiotics of Silent Comedy.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Not every sight gag works, and there's a brief stretch in the middle where the action becomes landlocked. But once we're out to sea the movie goes swimmingly--its three protagonists fighting, flailing, and often on the verge of drowning as their tiny skiff surges toward the land of the Inuit.
A brave but doomed attempt to revive the art of pure physical comedy, the willfully eccentric, practically dialogue-free, Iceberg sets itself a high standard with an opening 15 minutes of the most delicious slapstick, but thereafter only a few moments of gentle surrealism and the occasional poetic image justify the ride, with only 10% of the pic's potential laughs evident above the surface.
Three Belgian clowns wrote and directed this sly, winsome tale of one woman's quest for her destiny in the polar seas after an absurd but life-altering accident reveals the emptiness of her mundane, middle-class life.
Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan
The Belgian comedy The Iceberg might be a pale shadow of the films of the great French comedian Jacques Tati, but even that's enough to qualify it as an amusing, inventive effort.
The Iceberg is a riot, a quintessential French comedy with an improbable plot and an unbelievable cast of characters.
The film is striking and often charming, and any movie that places three tall, lanky types aboard a miniature boat named "Titanique" can't be slammed too much. But in the end, it's easier to admire than to love.
This one deserves to go back in the refrigerator – preferably to the very back of the refrigerator!
Gordon and Abel (who delivers one of the longest yawns in screen history) are howls as husband and wife. Their long, lean buddies seem custom-made for slapstick humor. Keaton would approve.