LOOKING FOR ERIC

UK, 2009, 120 minutes, Colour.
Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, Stephanie Bishop, Lucy -Jo Hudson.
Directed by Ken Loach.

When the group of postie-mates, middle-aged, beer-bellied, some slow, others jokey, start with a self-help exercise for their friend, Eric Bishop (Steve Everts), we realise that not everyone needs long-term Woody Allen type therapy or psychoanalysis, but that a team of friends can do a great deal to help one another.

Then, when the exercise leads to looking at oneself through the eyes of someone one loves and/or admires (and they select, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Fidel Castro and Sammy Davis Jr), we wonder whom we would choose. But, it is a great exercise when put into practice by Eric Bishop. He has chosen the great French soccer player for Manchester United, Eric Cantona, a wiz at scoring but temperamental. His poster is on the wall. He appears to Eric Bishop (and is billed as 'lui-meme) all the way through this serious and often very funny film, discussing life, offering advice, insights and challenges. And it works.

Funny? Therapy? A film by Ken Loach?

Well, Ken Loach is now 70 and shows that the most ardent of socially concerned film-makers can mellow with age.

Once more he directs a screenplay by his collaborator on all films since the mid-90s, Scot Paul Laverty, and it is a popular winner (even if soccer tactics are a mystery and Eric Cantona is unknown or is the sportsman-turned-actor in Elizabeth and French Film amongst others).

Loach stays again with the lives of ordinary, working-class people, his eye and his ear attuned to their daily routines, disappointments and joys, mistakes and hopes, angers and desperation. Loach is always sympathetic.

In the background are local thugs who enjoy manipulation and some psychopathic terrorising (and putting clips of it on YouTube). Loach has no time at all for them. Audiences will enjoy their uproarious comeuppance at the hands of an camera of the busloads of Manchester United fans in Cantona masks (with Cantona along for the ride). They threaten to put this footage on Blue Tube (only to be brought up-to-date on YouTube!).

But the human stories that Loach so likes to explore carry through: youthful love, panic, disappointments, personal frustration, impossibility of communication, recalcitrant step-sons, single mother and baby. The word 'forgiveness' is discussed by the two Erics but we think that it is impossible for Eric Bishop to be forgiven by his ex-wife. But, with Cantona's challenging about possibilities and speaking the truth, we find that reaching out, listening, reflection on errors, human contact are far more enabling than we might have imagined.

This is an often exhilarating entertainment, funny and simply wise (as long as you can live with the super-abundant expletives).

Winner of the Ecumenical Award, Cannes 2009.

1.A Ken Loach film? Social setting, concerns? Comic, funny, optimistic?

2.The Manchester settings, the ordinary streets and homes, the post office, the cafés? The contrast with the thug’s mansion? The British atmosphere?

3.The football inserts, the skills of Eric Cantona? His popularity? Song, fans?

4.The music of the 70s and the present? The football songs? The musical score?

5.The title, Eric Cantona, his play, skill, temperament, suspended and learning the trumpet, playing The Marseillaise, his film career?

6.The therapy theme, for ordinary people? Self-help books, courses? Meatballs and his conducting the exercises? The mates? The nature of the exercise, the jokey approach? Seeing oneself through the eyes of others: Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Fidel Castro? Through Eric Cantona’s eyes?

7.Eric Bishop, the introduction, his desperation? His poster of Cantona? Seeing him and Cantona looking at him and giving his opinion? The dialogue, the counselling, the courage, action, decision? Doing away with fear? Possibilities leading to forgiveness and happiness?

8.Eric Cantona and his appearance, self-deprecating humour, the proverbs (invented by the screenwriter)? Except for the seagull statement? Talking, listening, commenting, advice? Smoking the pot? Going back over his career, his goals, the best moment with his pass and working with the team? The play, the raid, their Cantona masks, the real Cantona there? The interview during the final credits about the seagulls?

9.Eric Bishop, in his car, reckless driving, the crash, desperate, in hospital, wanting to go to work? At the post office, sorting the mail? Meatballs and his mates, memories of Lily, sorting the letters, each of them trying to make him laugh, telling a joke? The exercise in his home, their collaboration? Meetings at the pub, football talk? The plan to confront the thugs, participation in the attacks?

10.Eric at home, the mess, his stepsons ignoring him, the loud sounds, turning off the TV? The background of his life, his stepsons? Not talking or listening? Jesse and his being pleasant, Ryan and his friends? Zac and the confrontation, Eric watching? Finding the gun? The argument about the gun? Jesse and Eric going to the shooting, seeing the ambulance? Ryan explaining the threats to Jesse? Eric going to confront Zac, the fierce dog, filming him, putting it on YouTube? Eric not telling Lily? The sudden invasion by the police, the arrest, the terror? His final decision, encouraged by Eric Cantona, the possibilities? The masks, the spray, the camera, the threat of putting it all on YouTube?

11.Eric, his past life, the flashback with his tough father, poking him, his expectations? His panic attack? The memories of the dance, first meeting Lily, dancing, the night? The christening and his alarm? Leaving, Lily’s card and its being framed? The decades of his life, with his children, the minimum mention of his second marriage, Sam, taking her to the football?

12.Sam, the baby, needing to study, relying on both parents, the experience of the arrest and her terror? The graduation, the photos, her disbelief at her parents together?

13.Lily, the meeting, the dancing, the night, her pregnancy, the birth of Sam? Cantona urging Eric to meet her? Not facing up the first time, the second time, the phone call, going for the drink, Eric and his need for explanation, the panic, the years? Lily explaining her devastation, being single, bringing up her daughter? Becoming a new person, the bed-and-breakfast weekends? Coming for the meal, meeting the boys, the police raid?

14.The boys, the arrest? Ryan thanking his father? On the other hand, Eric cooking only for himself and their shock? Turning off their TVs? Getting his mates carry them away? Their change?

15.The raid on the thugs, the busloads of men, the masks, the massed attack, the thugs and their girlfriends, the confrontation, the red spray, the camera? Zac admitting that it was his gun?

16.The family together, signs of hope? Exploration of human nature, therapy, if only…?