Looking For Eric: "I'm you, you're not me, who are you? Oh this is too confusing, let's just play some music"

Cast: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, Stephanie Bishop, Gerard Kearns
Director: Ken Loach
Screenwriter: Paul Laverty

Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric starts life as a snapshot of a Mancunian postman on the edge. By the time it’s over the film is best described as an uplifting work of social realism colliding with surrealism. Strange, yes, but highly entertaining nonetheless.

Mailman Eric Bishop (Evets) sees his life in various fragments- ex-wives, step kids, children and grandchildren. After having to see his first love Lilly (Bishop) 30 years after he walked out on but never stopped loving her, it all gets too much for Eric. Ending up in hospital after a trip the wrong way round a roundabout, he is understandably concerned.

Unable to turn to his friends, and with little support from his adolescent-attitude son Jess (Stefan Gumbs), and teenage tearaway stepson Ryan (Kearns), Eric is desperate for someone to guide him. The only man for the job is his hero, France and Manchester United great Eric Cantona.

The sight of Cantona appearing in our protagonist’s bedroom for a spot of counselling and a few tokes on a spliff is as unforgettable a cinema moment as his proclamation “I am not a man, I am Cantona�, and the film as a whole is as memorable as any production from Loach’s oeuvre. Put simply, although far from the director’s most hard-hitting or poignant work, Looking For Eric is unquestionably an accomplished modern fairytale classic.

The main and supporting casts offer solid performances, with Evets’ Eric deservedly stealing the show, and Loach’s directorial work blends together themes of hope, intimidation, happiness, friendship and desperation to startling effect. Wearing working class honesty on its sleeve, and promoting the Northern sentiment of people coming together and ‘just getting on with things’ when faced with adversity, the film is as deserving of critical success as it is DVD sales- recommended.

Looking for Eric is available now on DVD and Blu-ray via Icon Entertainment

By Martin Guttridge-Hewitt