I was not granted the football gene in my family. My dad played for a local team in his younger days, my grandmother almost married a West Brom player (back when they were good, I hasten to add) and my brother is similarly keen on the beautiful game. Sure I get excited about big matches, when I can be bothered to actually watch them - and when I lived at home, there was little choice - but I've never actually attended a match or even so much as fancied a football player. So the odds of my watching a film about a postman who is a Man U fanatic and whose tokes on his stepson's spliffs conjour up visions of Eric Cantona (lui-même) probably don't sound great. But throw Ken Loach into the mix, and you've got me.
Starring Steve Evets as Eric Bishop, a postie whose life has gone pear-shaped to say the least, the movie is above all things about hope. Eric, twice married, still regrets the demise of his first marriage and is lumbered with two stepsons from his second marriage - one of whom brings a very real danger into their home. I'm talking guns, gangs and blackmail. Depressed and hopeless, the film begins with what looks like Eric's half-hearted suicide attempt and sets an initially very bleak tone. Cue Cantona. A famously philosophical sportsman who is considered a legend in his field, his forays into acting have been well documented if not entirely box office draws. Here, he plays a version of himself and the stoned visions Eric has of his hero help him come to terms with his mistakes and give him back his pride, through a series of conversations and quasi-profound utterances from Cantona himself, serving as a fantasy life coach for want of a better expression. The symbolism of the film's title is soon apparent: both leads are called Eric; Eric Bishop is so broken he is really trying to find his way back to himself and Eric Cantona provides an ideal which he needs to meet in some way.
That's not to say the movie is bogged down in sentiment or profundity. Loach's gritty direction would never allow that to happen. And even in the 'vision' scenes, Cantona pokes fun at his legend and the media presentation of his cryptic sayings, at one point uttering the tongue in cheek, "I Am Not a Man. I Am Cantona". Ooh - and he plays the trumpet. Really. But for all this, many of his statements contain much wisdom, which if the film had strayed into less comedic waters we might be less prepared to pay attention to. After all, life is full of humour, even at the blackest of times. The juxtaposition of the comic and the tragic is often the source of dramatic meaning and Looking for Eric provides many examples of this. Miserable as the film may sound, the story contains many very funny moments, such as the well meaning but unsuccessful attempts of Eric's friends to lift his spirits or the ad-libbed dialogue from Evets in response to Cantona's aphoristic wonderings (‘I’m still getting over the bloody seagulls’). The humanity of this film is undeniable and largely thanks to an all round sterling cast. Hats off to leads Evets and Cantona - their performances are superb and deeply touching. Evets plays a man who has made many mistakes and is flawed, but whom we still want to be given a second chance at life. Just as football is his source of joy, our response to Eric shows how the movie itself reminds us all of the value of optimism in a world which is not always as we would like it to be.
And if you need any more convincing, I promise you there's not too much football! Loach's minimal use of Cantona's footballing glories are well timed and I suspect that even the most football phobic of folk could be moved by some of the footage, especially as they apply to the hope Eric vests in his idol. In some ways Cantona could play anyone - a film star, a singer, a politician. It is what he represents that is important. He gives Eric back his spirit, forces him to face his demons and really live life once more, even confronting his regret at the break down of his first marriage and re-establishing his relationship with ex-wife Lily. Nothing is entirely resolved by the end, but I still left the cinema with a glow in my heart and a spring in my step. I defy anyone to see an army of footie fans clad in masks of the uni-browed one, brandishing paintguns and attacking a chavvy crook wearing a bad dressing gown and pants and not smile.
Both coarse and tender, this movie is a very British film which betrays much about the situation of the working classes, something Loach is famed for. But the very French philosophy which Cantona brings to bear provides us with something strangely uplifting and gives us faith in ourselves as well as our world. This is perhaps best summed up by Cantona's imperative: 'Trust your teammates – always – or you are nothing!'
P.S After watching this, I might need to footnote that comment about never fancying a footie player. What?! I never said anything about former football players ...
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