"I'm more of a Telex man," says Mac MacIntyre (Riegert) several times during
the course of LOCAL HERO, "I could have this deal sewn up in an afternoon
from Houston."
Alas, everyone knows what is said about best-laid plans. Mac instead finds
himself in the small northern Scotland village of Ferness, negotiating with
the town accountant/hotelier/restaurateur/de facto mayor/bartender, Gordon
Urquhart (Lawson, incidentally also Ewan MacGregor's uncle and Wedge from the
first three STAR WARS movies), for the sale of the entire town. Knox Oil
thinks Ferness is the ideal place for their newest refinery, but needs to
have the entire coastline. So they carefully pick Mac for the job due to his
Scottish heritage, even though Mac neither looks nor is Scottish (his
Hungarian parents changed their name to MacIntyre upon arrival in America
thinking it sounded more "American").
Mac is also put on a secondary mission by his boss, Happer (Lancaster), to
watch the stars for a comet that may or may not be appearing somewhere around
Virgo. Happer feels his life may be more complete by having a comet named
after him than by reigning over the powerful company he currently commands.
LOCAL HERO has all the recipes for disaster, falling into that tenuous little
sub-genre I like to refer to as "cute small town British," but Bill Forsyth
has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep the film from falling prey to the
clichés of the genre. He keeps his environmental message in the background,
hinting at it through the enthusiasm of Happer for the stars and sliding it
into a subplot involving Mac's partner, Olsen (Capaldi) and the woman he's
wooing, who may or may not be part mermaid. Instead of having the people of
the town resent the oil company that seeks to buy their homes, the people
embrace the corporate money that will lead them to new and exciting lives.
Of course, the coastline must transform Mac in some way. There are few movies
out there where the jaded corporate guy goes to the charming little town with
the eccentric characters and comes back the same guy. But Forsyth wisely
stays true to what the character would probably decide to do instead of what
the audience wants him to do.
Ultimately, LOCAL HERO is so satisfying to me because of Forsyth's take on
the people he portrays. His eccentrics aren't the Irish eccentrics of Roddy
Doyle, who sometimes feel to me as if their eccentricities are created for
the screen. The characters Forsyth portrays have the weirdness that one
develops over time; odd little habits, quirks.
Nor are the people overly righteous about their village and way of life.
Things, such as the Aurora Borealis, that widen Mac's eyes are shrugged off
as everyday occurrences by the locals. They seem to like where they live and
enjoy each other but can't wait for a piece of pie to get away from a life
that, for them, has become dull.
LOCAL HERO offers many rewards: the scenic village, itself almost a
character, the wonderful dialogue, and a story that slips a lot of the traps
most films fall into. But, most of all, it creates a sense of familiarity
with the characters and their world that, when the film ends, makes you want
to revisit and never leave. Over just less than two hours, I was able to make
some new friends.
-J. Paul Henry
While we would never encourage anyone to destroy a video... 
