Looking for Eric

City Paper Grade: B+

by Sam Adams

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Published: May 19, 2010

MAN-LY: A depressed postman (Steve Evets, left) finds an imaginary friend in real-life soccer star Eric Cantona in Ken Loach's new film. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

[City paper Grade: B+ ]

The story of Eric (Steve Evets), a depressed Manchester postman whose guardian angel takes the form of soccer star Eric Cantona, Looking for Eric returns director Ken Loach to the heights of Riff-Raff and Raining Stones — winning stories of working-class life whose politics were integrated rather than smeared on top. A devoted Man. U fan, albeit one who can't afford tickets anymore, Evets' Eric is a good-natured but weak-willed single father, plagued with panic attacks and a tenuous sense of self. But when he's at a particularly low ebb, Cantona appears in his bedroom, dispensing French proverbs and helping Evets take back the reins of his life. The conceit could be irreparably coy if Loach didn't play it absolutely straight, and were Evets not such a lovable screwup that we're happy to see whatever he sees. Eric's life is full of ordinary but draining complications: two stepsons of different races — the elder of whom treats him with open contempt, a difficult relationship with his adult daughter, an infant granddaughter whose existence forces him to interact with the woman he impregnated and left years before. These are problems only the greatest center forward can solve. With an uncharacteristically light touch, Loach mixes a dash of Capra into his hard-bitten social realism. Cantona is an unlikely phantom, his wisdom only slightly more articulate than the man who dreamed him up. His presence is treated matter-of-factly, and Loach and his frequent collaborator Paul Laverty, who wrote the script, never forget which Eric their story is really about. Cantona may have been a superstar on the soccer pitch, but in Eric's home, he's just a good-looking Frenchman with a few ideas. Eric's problems, especially those involving his rebellious son and a local tough, are not the kind the wealthy have to deal with, an understated irony that the film thankfully never feels the need to underscore. If the tables were turned, Eric could probably offer Cantona a saying or two.

You Don't Know Jack
Repertory Film