Director Bill Forsyth with Peter Riegert and Denis Lawson

I didn’t quite get the admiration for Bill Forsyth’s films in the 1980s: their charm eluded me. I’m still not sure that I would want to rewatch Gregory’s Girl, but after 40 years I can say that Local Hero is a really enjoyable film. What I saw then as tiresome whimsy interlaced with money-centred real life is now a small, subtle pleasure. It’s beautifully filmed – idyllic Scotland without the drizzle – and this time I noticed the parallels. Mac and Urquhart are brothers under the skin: both successful wheeler-dealers, albeit one in Houston (international scope for benign/malign influence) and one a Scottish village (influence limited by personal ties). Since Riegert and Lawson were similar in size, build and colouring, this worked perfectly. Little jokes – Mac’s forefathers were from Hungary, the unknown toddler in the pushchair, the Russian fishing captain checking his financial portfolio. Surreal touches of the outside world – the motorcycling dervish and the punk rocker. The minor female roles (stereotypical objects of desire) were enhanced by noticing that one is Marina and the other Stella – echoing the range of the film from underwater oil deposits to Happer’s obsession with astronomy. Nothing was laboured: the amusement was understated and fleeting.

It doesn’t stand up to rigorous analysis – was that supposed to be an environmental message at the end? just what did the villagers intend to do if they made it to Knox’s beach shack? – but I’ll take a bit of filmy gossamer over a tub-thumping lecture any day.