Comfort and Joy

Writer/director Bill Forsyth's follow-up to his best film, Local Hero, is another comic exploration of a man undergoing a personal crisis. In Local Hero, the American played by Peter Riegert finds himself enchanted by the people and ambience of a Scottish village he has been dispatched to purchase ...more

Even if it's not up to the sublime heights of Local Hero, Comfort and Joy is still a strong entry in writer/director Bill Forsyth's modest filmography. Character actor Bill Paterson is perfect as the likable but ineffectual Alan; you can see why a woman like his girlfriend (Eleanor David), who is first seen shoplifting her way through a department store at Christmas, would grow tired of his plodding ways. Nonetheless, when Alan begins casting about for work that will bring more meaning to his ...more