Local Hero (1983)

After two failed attempts to watch this following a personal recommendation from one Mark Kermode many years ago (due to scratched discs and laziness) I finally got through Local Hero at the third time of asking. It’s no surprise to report that the film is a gem of the highest order, it’s oddities and charm would warm the heart of even the characters of Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor one imagines. Oil executive Mac is sent to the Scottish highlands to strike a deal to purchase a part of land inhabited by a tight knit local community, but initially struggles to adjust to the whims and differences of Ferness, in striking comparison to his home of Houston, Texas. Local Hero reminded me of the Hugh Grant fronted The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain (1995), a film with the same enchanting and heartfelt community feel, and one that clearly owes a debt to Bill Forsyth’s masterful comedy. Mac’s journey over the space of just a few days is an experience he grows to love and the drawn out process of the sale of the land just increases in hilarity over the course of the film as more barriers are put up in front of him. I genuinely didn’t know how the film was going to end, which is not usually the case in this type of feel good comedy, but the eccentricities of Local Hero just ram home its nonconformist comedy; I was often laughing at the bizarre nature of the laughs themselves. Local Hero is a masterpiece of comedic script-writing, accompanied by a wonderful score by Mark Knopfler and should be seen by everyone. 8.6/10