Star Review
’My problem,’ director Bill Forsyth once lamented, ‘is that 40 per cent of me wants to make an entertaining film and 60 per cent of me wants to subvert the idea of movies.’ This dichotomy is never more apparent than in his 1983 masterpiece Local Hero, which challenges and confounds the viewer’s every expectation, whilst adding an undercurrent of wistful sentimentality and flinging a last-ditch lifeline to its protagonist.
Mac (Peter Riegert) is a deal-broker for an American oil firm, so superficial that even his Scottish heritage is faked. When his boss (Burt Lancaster) decides to buy up a Scottish fishing village and plunder its natural resources, Mac is sent to sweeten up the residents. But anyone anticipating a straightforward story of redemption, in which our hero helps the plucky villagers to defeat the monolithic corporation, may be disappointed. All the villagers – bar one philosophical hermit (Fulton Mackay) – want to sell, while Mac is weak and deferential, with no intention of scuppering the deal.
The ensemble acting is flawless. Riegert, Mackay and Denis Lawson – as a frisky accountant-cum-hotelier – are most engaging, while Lancaster’s amusing performance is underscored by an unexpected humanity that makes his later scenes a treat. Peter Capaldi, as Mac’s guileless accomplice, delivers his own off-kilter dialogue with relish.
Forsyth’s singular sense of humour is, as always, a joy, encompassing sight gags, whimsy and absurdity. After Mac falls foul of Mackay’s ridiculous bargaining techniques, he tries hurriedly to pass on his acquired wisdom to his boss: ‘If he offers you anything to do with sand, say yes, and we'll get him to sign something right away.’ A hysterical subplot has Lancaster’s unhappy, astrology-obsessed tycoon reluctantly undergoing abuse therapy and enduring expletive-filled, ‘anonymous’ phone calls from his psychiatrist.
And despite – or perhaps because of – its resolute unconventionality, Forsyth’s film is incredibly affecting. The scenes in Scotland are shot, acted and scored (by Mark Knopfler) with such tenderness that even without narration or flashback they play like Mac’s rose-tinted memories. There are few films that bring a lump to the throat with the very mention of their name. Local Hero really is that special.
Rick Burin on 31st March 2008
View all 8 of Rick Burin’s reviews
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Film Description
A delightfully observed comedy looking at the conflict that arises after the American Knox Oil and Gas Company send a representative to buy land near a Scottish village for their oil refinery. He finds cheerful prospective millionaires, the beauty of the northern lights, an eccentric beachcomber and a woman with webbed toes.
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Local Hero
