Comfort and Joy

This is a thoroughly enjoyable film. In the same vein as Bill Forsyth's "Local Hero," this film doesn't star any American actors, just good, Scottish character players. Bill Paterson, (probably best known to American audiences for his bit roles in "Crush" and "Witches") portrays morning drive DJ Alan "Dickie" Bird, whom we meet a week before Christmas--the day his girlfriend leaves him. Depressed and lonely, Alan looks for meaning in his life. Along the way, he stumbles upon a nasty turf war over ice cream (between the "Mr. Bunnys" and the Mr. McCools") and gets sucked in the middle. Set in modern Glasgow at a popular radio station (by the way, the radio station scenes are realistic) this film includes a lot of light, matter-of-fact ironies and funny moments (check out Alan's precious BMW at the beginning of the film and at the end; the xylophone player and the vocalist at the ice cream plant; and the shirts Alan's audio engineer wears). Enjoyable any time !