There was not alot here. None of the characters were that memorable, I kept watching waiting for something significant to happen and nothing did.
I think that was the point, with him on the balcony at the end kind of summed up this strange movie.
Not bad but nothing special or memorable.
6 out of 10.
Well, I'll have to disagree here. I think almost all the characters are memorable. This movie is one of my favorites. If you were waiting for something significant to happen, how could you fail to see the change in Mac? In the beginning he had no desire to be in Scotland and by the end he was eating his heart out to get back. Remember when he dropped his watch in the water? Surely you must have known that that symbolized a sea change in the way he viewed his surroundings. He was devastated when Happer told him to go back to Houston. And I find it difficult to believe anyone would think that Gordon was not memorable.
shareSorry, OP, but that's really sad. So much of this movie got by you. I hope it was just because you were having a really bad day. Maybe some day you can watch it again and get as much pleasure out of it as we fans have.
shareyou're probably used to the loud, cliche-ish, obvious and graceless movies that predominate the silver screen today, so that the subtley was lost on you. There are parts where I actually lol.
This is one of my very favorite movies ever made. It always lifts me up when I see it.
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The OP is only expressing his honest opinions about the movie. Why do you have to act like a dick!?! You're the only one trading in cliches...the cliched response of an obnoxious fanboy brat.
shareYeah, it was odd - no explosions every thirty seconds.
Very strange - no car chases (well, there was that kid on the moped....)
And what is really really unusual - some intelligence and subtlety in the story and some thought put into the making of the film. Oh, and a sense of wonder.
Oh well, you can't have everything.............
"The hour is come but not the man"
It was very memorable to me, the ending surprised me and stayed with me, unlike some films do. It reminded me of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain (something like that), kind of slow but very meaningful in the end; not in a slap in your face way either.
shareI rate very few movies 10 and this is one of the few.
I've lost count of the number of times I've seen this film but sadly
none in a theater. I don't know if seeing this film with an audience
would make any difference but I would have liked to have had the
opportunity.
Local Hero is, to me, the perfect film.
Every character is played perfectly, every scene is tight, there are
no wasted movements or extraneous dialogue.
The OP is of course entitled to his/her opinions... but to say there's not much there, to say that the rich and wonderfully detailed characters of Local Hero are unmemorable saddens me a little. Please give it another go... it's worth the effort!
shareSaw this for the first time today, and on first viewing I thought Happer's Psychologist was incredibly memorable... especially as he's hanging outside the office window plastering insults on the outside. Hilarious!
sharePity you didn't "get it." It is a truly great little film.
Sucks being you, I'm sure.
You are so right, this is a great film, it is a pity that there are so many that just don't "get it"
"Ya never know what ya don't know, ya know?"
I think that I probably should watch this again.
That said, I'm not really sure that it's not that I didn't "get it". I think that I got it - I just didn't find it amazing.
It's strange because I am a fan of this type of movie, where not a lot happens (Experienced Preferred, But Not Essential, My American Cousin, Lone Star, The Station Agent). But for some reason, this just didn't do it for me.
Someone in one of these threads compared this to Lost in Translation, and I have to agree that I thought of that film once, while watching. And I'm not a fan of that movie either - maybe too many long scenes of just looking at the actors doing nothing.
And Happer's psychiatrist - WTF? I found that neither interesting, believable, nor funny.
Overall, I liked it, but just didn't love it. As I wrote, though, I'll give it another shot - we'll see.
it's all about the mood.
Season's Greetings
Agreed--"Lone Star" is another one of my favorites. Little character study movies can be wonderful.
I definitely recommend re-watching "Local Hero". Although my husband & I loved it from the first time we saw it in the theater, we definitely have enoyed it even more over the years. It ripens and mellows, and lines that just went by on first viewing now make us laugh out loud.
It came out the year we got we got married, and has been "our movie" for 30 years. Lines from the film have become catchphrases for us. So yes, it holds a very special place in our hearts.
A few films over the years have actually been made as intentional homages to "Local Hero", most notably "Doc Hollywood" and "The Decoy Bride". Although these are enjoyable films that even have some really wonderful moments, they fail to cast the start-to-finish spell that this perfect little haiku of a film does.
Yes, watch it again. And again. Soon you will be visiting old friends, and like Victor the Russian, you won't be able to live without an annual visit to Furness.
One could almost say the greatness of this movie is that nothing much DID happen (in the normal cinematic sense, that is).
There was no obvious/cliche "Aha Moment" in this film when Mac realized that the town should survive. That realization just slowly creeps up on him -- and up on us.
So a lot happened, but if you were expecting this movie to lay out what happened at your feet, then you could easily miss what happened.