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MovieMail's Review
Loach's upbeat comedy starring Eric Cantona finds a fan in Mike McCahill, who explains why this is a must-see.
In his fifth decade of filmmaking, Ken Loach continues to surprise. After winning the Palme d’Or with The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Loach’s latest is a comedy-drama that boasts not only the presence of a footballing megastar, but cover art set out in a way that traditionally denotes heart-warming triumph over intimidating odds. Looking for Eric eventually delivers on that promise, but long-time followers of this director can rest assured: this being a Loach film, the odds are better observed than most.
Our hero Eric (Steve Evets) is in the throes of a deep depression: his second wife has just walked out, leaving behind two stepsons drifting into crime and indolence respectively. After writing off his car in an apparent suicide bid, Eric’s namesake and idol, the Manchester United legend Eric Cantona, appears to him, the consequence of either self-medication or mild concussion. A French Jiminy Cricket, prone to trumpeting La Marseillaise from the balconies of Manchester tower blocks, Big Eric is all self-belief, where our Eric has only self-doubt.
Despite the fantasy-football elements, what follows is still recognisably ‘a Ken Loach film’: the handiwork of the Bath City fan who gave us Brian Glover hassling schoolboy defenders in Kes, the same Loach whose Raining Stones similarly juxtaposed its blokey badinage with sometimes brutal realities. The tone may be lighter here, but the characters remain vulnerable souls: for all Cantona’s formidable presence, it is through Evets’ unsentimentalised portrayal of careworn resignation that the film asserts its own identity.
While it’s not Loach’s most political work, Looking For Eric might well be used as a primer on the importance of solidarity in the modern world: the direct community action of the finale is almost guaranteed to send you away wearing a big, daft grin.
You don’t have to be a Red Devil to cheer our Eric’s recovery, nor do you have to be a football fan to connect with the film’s underlying social and emotional truths. From end to end, it’s a genuine crowdpleaser.
'He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six.'
Ken Loach directs this upbeat comedy set in Manchester, about a football-mad postman who receives life coaching from his idol, the enigmatic French footballing legend, Eric Cantona. On a downward spiral and facing an uncertain future, postman Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is looking for a way out of his torment. Stealing a joint from his teenage son, he takes a drag and starts recounting his woes to a poster of the Gallic legend in his bedroom. As if by magic, the famously philosophical one miraculously appears, pouring forth wisdom to his number one fan, who he then proceeds to take on a journey of blissful self-discovery.
