Tuesday 2 November 2010

Looking for Eric (Ken Loach, 2009)

Cantona, that is, who steps out of the hero-worshipping dreams of a depressed divorced Mancunian postman to offer him spiritual guidance in the form of his trademark cryptic aphorisms. When they're actually comprehensible through Cantona's accent - he still speaks English like someone reading a phonetic transcript - the snippets of wisdom dispensed gradually turn the put-upon single dad away from suicidal thoughts and back on track with winning his ex-wife back and steering his elder son away from gangland trouble, in a subplot reminiscent of Loach's My Name is Joe.
Thankfully, though, it's lighter than that. The scenes with postman Eric's circle of work buddies attempting some home therapy on him are particularly sweet, Cantona sends his guru status up nicely and while there's no great revelation at the end of it, and the imaginary friend device is hardly original, it leaves a hearty aftertaste.

6/10

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