Fresh
The thematics are rather cloying, but the mood -- profoundly relaxed, bemused -- eventually conquers.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Local Hero
A BEAUTIFUL COASTLINE... A RICH OIL MAN WANTS TO DEVELOP IT. A POOR BEACH BUM WANTS TO LIVE ON IT. AN ENTIRE TOWN WANTS TO PROFIT BY IT. AND A REAL-LIVE MERMAID WANTS TO SAVE IT... ONLY ONE OF THEM WILL GET THEIR WAY.
1983 · 1h 51m · PG
Comedy, Drama
Directed by
Bill Forsyth
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Local Hero
Overview
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.
Director and cast
- Bill Forsyth Director
- Burt Lancaster as Felix Happer
- Peter Riegert as "Mac" MacIntyre
- Denis Lawson as Gordon Urquhart
- Fulton Mackay as Ben Knox
- Peter Capaldi as Danny Oldsen
- Jennifer Black as Stella Urquhart
- Jenny Seagrove as Marina
- Norman Chancer as Moritz
- Rikki Fulton as Geddes
- Alex Norton as Watt
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
100%
Tomatometer
Fresh
[It's] loaded with wry, offbeat humor and is the sort of satisfying, personal picture that is becoming an increasingly rare commodity these days
Todd McCarthy, Variety
Fresh
Here is a small film to treasure, a loving, funny, understated portrait of a small Scottish town and its encounter with a giant oil company.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
It demonstrates Mr. Forsyth's uncanny ability for making an audience sense that something magical is going on, even if that something isn't easily explained.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
Fresh
Forsyth cannot quite tease out of his characters the kind of strange sublety that Powell and Pressburger delivered, but it is enough that he and producer David Puttnam succeed in making you realise just how badly this kind of film has been missed.
Time Out
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