FILMandMOVIEmaking.com

4 stars****

Nick Horby’s ‘Fever Pitch’ had set the previous high mark for a serious football film; now Looking For Eric has beaten it hands down and we’re looking at the new number one.

Paul Laverty was written an excellent screenplay (I’ve just ordered my copy to study it more closely) that conveys a diverse selection:

• The life and relationships of a local postman and his co-workers
• The football fan’s view of Eric Cantona as a king of football
• The troubles a sixteen year old can get addicted to, in today’s lifestyle

What’s it about?

Eric Bishop is a football fanatic postman whose life is descending into crisis. Looking after his granddaughter is bringing him into contact with his ex-wife, Lily, who he abandoned after the birth of their child. At the same time, his son Ryan is hiding a gun under the floorboards of his bedroom for a gangster. At his weakest moments Bishop considers suicide. But after a short meditation session with fellow postmen in his room, hallucinations bring forth visits from his footballing hero, the famously philosophical Eric Cantona, who gives him advice. His relationship with Lily improves dramatically. Then Bishop brings the gun to the gangster, but is forced to keep it himself when a Rottweiler is set on him in his car. Eric Cantona advises Bishop to talk to his friends and to ’surpise’ himself. Bishop organises ‘Operation Cantona’, sneaking in dozens of fellow Manchester United fans into the gangster’s house and humiliating them, threatening to put the video of their operation onto Youtube.

Eric Cantona was the superstar footballer who brought an athletic grace and grand entertainment to his Manchester United playing days, which coincided with their best performances for twenty five years, helping them gain trophy after trophy. He shone at a time he was surrounded by stars and introduced the club (and the world’s most successful manager, Sir Alex Ferguson) to improved training methods which brought instant success. The fans called him The King and still sing his name at the Old Trafford stadium twelve years later.

To cap it all, the acting by the Frenchman is excellent showing how he’s set another quality movie on to his CV.

Ken Loach, as director, has magnificently put across the mix and match of a hero, a set of workers who can’t afford to go and see their local team anymore and a brand of loyalty that exists not just among the team’s supporters, but among the team of workers at the post office, in this example. Loach shows us that if we act together, we are stronger than performing alone.

As a certain frenchman says, “He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six.” This certainly mirrors how Eric Cantona was seen in his Manchester United days. David Beckham still talks proudly about Cantona’s influence.