In this instalment of the Guardian's ongoing series on writers' favourite feelgood films, the author explains why David Lynch's 1999 drama The Straight Story holds that place for them. Unlike Lynch's usual work, steeped in menace and surrealism (Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks), this film offers a tender, understated tale of reconciliation, told largely straight, which the writer first encountered aged 15.

The film dramatises the true story of Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old second world war veteran who rode a lawnmower 300 miles across the American midwest to make peace with his ailing brother. The writer recalls interviewing producer and Lynch collaborator Mary Sweeney, who discovered the story in the New York Times and brought it to the director, and praises Richard Farnsworth's poignant, Oscar-nominated lead performance, delivered while he was terminally ill and shot by veteran cinematographer Freddie Francis in his own final film, with a score by regular Lynch composer Angelo Badalamenti.