Knox Oil and Gas of Houston is far from removed from the North Sea oil it desires - and the sleepy Scottish seaside village it wants to buy and replace with a refinery. So Knox sends its ace dealmaker to negotiate. He finds cheerful future millionaires, awesome northern lights, a lusty innkeeper, a stubborn beachcomber and a mermaid with webbed toes. And you've found Bill Forsyth's enchanting comedy Local Hero.
Forsyth's touch is perfect: whether showing us a tycoon with his head in the stars or bridging generations at an all-night ceilidh dance, our spirits are always in good hands. "Genuine fairy tales are rare. So is filmmaking that is thoroughly original," Janet Maslin of the New York Times wrote. "Local Hero, a disarming, funny movie, is both."