"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

hybridCinema Ratings Guide:

Take a pal and pay full price for both tickets.

It’s worth a full-price ticket.

It’s worth a matinee ticket.

Wait for video rental.

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