Looking for Eric is a picture nominated this year for Golden Palm at Cannes Film Festival 2009 . In general there is nothing peculiar in the picture, but one point made critics choose this one from the variety of others – it’s a movie about what football means for the British nation. The plot tells us a story of a postman who left his wife with the daughter 30 years ago, and after that he’s been living with two stepsons from the second marriage. During this time he kept fences with his daughter, but he never coped with coming across his wife. Now his teenage stepsons are teenagers and certainly have lots of problems. Eric (the main character) is depressed with the burden of bringing up two children and reconciling with the fear to talk with his first wife. He steels weed from his elder son, and once, sitting in his room and smoking, he commences seeing hallucinations in the form of Eric Cantona – outstanding footballer in all senses, once a player of Manchester United. Cantona speaks with Eric and helps him to solve his problems (Cantona plays himself in the movie, that’s not his first movie, and again I should admit he is a great person, being not only a genius footballer, but a nice actor as well). They recollect old football matches, and we see how important the football phenomenon is for British peoplew. We see many scenes involving Eric’s lower middle-class friends who are great fans of football. Cantona helps Eric to see his wife again, to solve his son’s problems. The son is blackmailed by a local bandit to keep a gun at Eric’s place, otherwise the criminal promises to deal with his family shortly. And in one of his visions Eric gets a piece of advice from Cantona – a football-like piece of advice. "If your rival is good at using his right leg, try to pass him from the left”, Cantona says. "Always use your mind”. At the end of the movie we see two buses full of MU fans, wearing Cantona-masks on their faces, going to the gang’s house, crushing everything and pouring paints over the bandits. They destroy the notorious pistol with a sledgehammer in front of the gang. They record the "massacre” on the camera, and, threatening with humiliation, they promise to upload the video to Youtube if the gang doesn’t get lost of Eric’s family. Not only are one team’s fans like a family, but football is what makes people live and forget about their problems as well, and sometimes it even helps to overcome all life’s hardships. It’s a kind of religion, mentality, something that brings people together. And at last we should say thank you to Ken Loach for his deep understanding of the issue. Thank You, Ken. P.S.: Cantona’s French accent is as always brilliant)))
I've heard a lot about such a great director as Ken Loach. He is from the UK. He is know for his social realist style of directing. In 2014 there was the premier of his new film "Jimmy's Hall" which had really positive critical reception. But to tell the truth I have never watched his movies. As for "Looking for Eric", this film seems to me very captivating. It's definitely true that football really means a lot for the British nation. I have no doubts that this film is a true work of art.
