Writer-director Bill Forsyth has described his new film as the story of “a fella having a really bad week.” That’s putting it mildly. Alan “Dickie” Bird is a Glasgow MOR disc jockey, and his week starts with the abrupt departure of his lover Maddy – who takes with her virtually everything in their apartment. The next day he sees a “Mr. Bunny” ice-cream truck trashed by two masked goons (one of whom asks for his autograph). It’s a full-scale ice-cream war Bird has stumbled onto: a powerful Scottish-Italian family – complete with double-barreled accent – feuding over territory. Bird recognizes his chance to become not just a peacemaker, but a grownup who can participate in chaotic “real life.” But his boss thinks he’s crazy, his lover won’t come back, the warring Scotia Nostra mistrusts him, and his car keeps getting mutilated.
Comfort and Joy will take audiences by surprise, including many fans won over by Forsyth’s previous films: That Sinking Feeling, Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero. Forsyth has reined in his offbeat comic sensibility, using it to broaden or punctuate the action and characterization, rather than making it their goal. Of course, certain sequences are hilarious: Bird stumbling through a darkened kid’s bedroom, detonating noises from unseen toys; his first pow-wow with his pixilated boss; Bird confronting a psychiatrist who’s more cracked than any patient could be. But viewers expecting a laugh-riot will be disappointed. Worse, they’ll overlook the gentle humor that fuels the entire film and ignites such priceless moments as the crowd of Mr. Bunny dolls peering over Bird’s shoulder, or the twisted jingle heard when the battered ice-cream truck limps away.
Audiences attuned to the special blend of seriousness and humor which Forsyth has created will find Comfort and Joy a revelation, a seamless combination of real-life experience and farce. They’ll see a sensitivity to casting and locations which rivals that of the Italian neo-realists. As is so often the case with Forsyth, suspense is an additional, unexpectedly potent element – you’re never quite sure just how dangerous this ice-cream war might actually become. Anyone willing to follow the film into its own special area will agree with this reviewer that Comfort and Joy is one of the year’s finest and most original films.
(This review first appeared in The Film Journal, November 1984.)
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For more on Bill Forsyth, see:
Film Review: That Sinking Feeling
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 