Looking for Eric begins when a man named Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is hospitalised after a car crash. Eric's life is in a mess as he is struggling physically and mentally. As a postman he has failed to deliver any mail and he is struggling to share a home with his son and stepson. Both teens are extremely lazy, regularly inviting their freeloading friends to stay in the house and dump their stolen goods. Eric's life is further complicated through his relationship to his first ex-wife. She sees Eric so that he can mind their older daughter's grandchild. Eric's friends, who also work at the post office and are mad soccer fans, try to help him by performing an exercise whereby they look through the eyes of someone famous they admire to see themselves. Eric chooses Manchester United Forward, Eric Cantona and soon he imagines Cantona regularly giving him advice on life.
Ken Loach has always been interested in the working class of Britain and this film, though peppered with humour at times, covers similar territory about the hardships of ordinary day life. Due to both divorces, Eric Bishop is a man that has been disconnected from his family and we immediately feel his confusion. One of his son's is white and the other is Black English. The latter must therefore belong to his second wife, who we never see in the film. Adding to this is, Eric must also look after his granddaughter, regularly brought to him by his first wife. While some of these details are rather unclear and convoluted at first, it seems to be a deliberate affect to immerse us into the same stress and disorientation that Eric must feel with the branches of his family. Eric's relationship with his first wife is really the core of the film and it is handled with a great sense of maturity. A number of flashbacks are used to show how Eric met his wife at a dance competition and their enthusiasm and attraction to one another provides a sad contrast to their current lives of misery, reflecting how the weight of time and age presses on a person's shoulders.
Eric is wholly embodied by actor Steve Evets, who previously worked on television, with shows such as Heartbeat. As a very scrawny and slight man, Eric appears physically and emotionally weak, allowing other characters in the film, particularly his sons, to undermine his authority. It's a really believable performance of internal and external. In only a smart part, Eric Cantona as himself is solid as well, though actual fans of soccer might appreciate his legacy somewhat more. Refreshingly, the film does not opt to be bogged down in psychological pretensions about the appearance of Eric Cantona. His appearances are often very humorous and perhaps it shouldn't viewed as a fault of Bishop's mind but rather a means of releasing his frustrations in drawing from what his idol would do in these situations. All of the other actors are equally as effective, though sometimes the film's heavy accents are not always clear and audible. Subtitle would have been a particular preference.
Although similarities to Sweet Sixteen can be drawn, it is surprising how much the last quarter of the film also resembles the Australian film, The Combination. Just as George Basha's character in that film had to defend his kid brother from a drug dealer, Eric must protect his son from a gangster nicknamed The Prophet. Regardless, these scenes involving the gangster are vividly handled by Loach for an utter sense of realism and an emotional impact. The shock of these scenes is perhaps a result of how funny a lot of the rest of the film is. A lot of humour is derived from Eric's friends in particular, who are incompetent, but at the same time good willed. As they sit around a pub discussing how to deal with the gangster, one of Eric's friends walks in and presents to the table a self-help guide on how to deal with psychopaths. The climax of the film too, while absolutely absurd, is a very unexpected but hilarious surprise.
Looking for Eric is another small film about working class Britain and the way that ordinary people struggle with everyday life as much as the more extraordinary moments too. The contrast between humour and drama is a powerful technique throughout the film, reflecting the ups and downs of life, making us feel for Eric when something positive happens to him, only to be setback once more. Performed with truth from the entirety of its cast, this is quite a touching little story, particularly for those that felt that Sweet Sixteen was too nihilistic.
Ken Loach has always been interested in the working class of Britain and this film, though peppered with humour at times, covers similar territory about the hardships of ordinary day life. Due to both divorces, Eric Bishop is a man that has been disconnected from his family and we immediately feel his confusion. One of his son's is white and the other is Black English. The latter must therefore belong to his second wife, who we never see in the film. Adding to this is, Eric must also look after his granddaughter, regularly brought to him by his first wife. While some of these details are rather unclear and convoluted at first, it seems to be a deliberate affect to immerse us into the same stress and disorientation that Eric must feel with the branches of his family. Eric's relationship with his first wife is really the core of the film and it is handled with a great sense of maturity. A number of flashbacks are used to show how Eric met his wife at a dance competition and their enthusiasm and attraction to one another provides a sad contrast to their current lives of misery, reflecting how the weight of time and age presses on a person's shoulders.
Eric is wholly embodied by actor Steve Evets, who previously worked on television, with shows such as Heartbeat. As a very scrawny and slight man, Eric appears physically and emotionally weak, allowing other characters in the film, particularly his sons, to undermine his authority. It's a really believable performance of internal and external. In only a smart part, Eric Cantona as himself is solid as well, though actual fans of soccer might appreciate his legacy somewhat more. Refreshingly, the film does not opt to be bogged down in psychological pretensions about the appearance of Eric Cantona. His appearances are often very humorous and perhaps it shouldn't viewed as a fault of Bishop's mind but rather a means of releasing his frustrations in drawing from what his idol would do in these situations. All of the other actors are equally as effective, though sometimes the film's heavy accents are not always clear and audible. Subtitle would have been a particular preference.
Although similarities to Sweet Sixteen can be drawn, it is surprising how much the last quarter of the film also resembles the Australian film, The Combination. Just as George Basha's character in that film had to defend his kid brother from a drug dealer, Eric must protect his son from a gangster nicknamed The Prophet. Regardless, these scenes involving the gangster are vividly handled by Loach for an utter sense of realism and an emotional impact. The shock of these scenes is perhaps a result of how funny a lot of the rest of the film is. A lot of humour is derived from Eric's friends in particular, who are incompetent, but at the same time good willed. As they sit around a pub discussing how to deal with the gangster, one of Eric's friends walks in and presents to the table a self-help guide on how to deal with psychopaths. The climax of the film too, while absolutely absurd, is a very unexpected but hilarious surprise.
Looking for Eric is another small film about working class Britain and the way that ordinary people struggle with everyday life as much as the more extraordinary moments too. The contrast between humour and drama is a powerful technique throughout the film, reflecting the ups and downs of life, making us feel for Eric when something positive happens to him, only to be setback once more. Performed with truth from the entirety of its cast, this is quite a touching little story, particularly for those that felt that Sweet Sixteen was too nihilistic.