Local Hero (1983)

directed by Bill Forsyth

starring Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, Fulton Mackay

This British gem reminded me of a Coen Brothers film in many ways. It has the flat humor and quirky characters, a focus on a specific setting and no conventional character arc or plot line. The title of Local Hero seems to suggest the American protagonist would join with the residents of the film's small Scottish town to fight the impending construction of a refinery - but the actual story could hardly be more different.

Many things become clear throughout the course of this film. Peter Riegert's MacIntyre is dissatisfied with his lonely, successful American life and he admires and envies what the Scottish have. The Scottish, meanwhile, are much more concerned about getting the best deal for their land than any sentimental attachment to it. The one man who does seem to mind is a hobo who lives on - and, coincidentally, owns - the beach, and he doesn't seem to be quite in step with everyone else's ideas of reality. MacIntyre's boss apparently has enough issues to employ a psychologist and inspire him to comedic acts of madness. And MacIntyre's gangly, awkward partner clearly lusts after a local marine biologist...and they meet up a few times on the beach, hardly crescendoing into anything like a romantic subplot. It's refreshing, in an anticlimactic sort of way.

Local Hero has many funny moments, but it finds them in absurdity, and leaves both conventional storytelling and comedy by the wayside. It leaves you with much to think about without directly addressing these questions. Actually, it mirrors the way I often feel after a Coen Brothers film: huh. I look forward to thinking about it and watching it again, but in the meantime, I can't admit much in the realm of emotion.