SYNOPSICS
Looking for Eric (2009) is a English,French movie. Ken Loach has directed this movie. Steve Evets,Eric Cantona,Stephanie Bishop,Gerard Kearns are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2009. Looking for Eric (2009) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama,Fantasy,Sport movie in India and around the world.
Eric Bishop, a middle-aged postman working for the Manchester sorting office, is going through a dreadful crisis. For starters, his second life companion has not resurfaced although she was released from prison a few months ago. He is left alone with two stepsons to look after, which is no bed of roses since the two teens disrespect him and keep disobeying him. To make matters worse, Ryan, the older boy, fascinated by Zac, a dangerous gangster, has accepted to hide his gun in Eric's house. On the other hand, he is asked by Sam, his student daughter who has a newborn baby, to get back in touch with Lily, his separated wife. Now, Eric left her not long after she gave back to their daughter. As a result Eric panics - Having lost all his bearings, Eric Bishop soliloquizes face to the poster of his idol, another Eric, French footballer Eric Cantona, when the latter appears just like the genie out of Aladdin's lamp. Through a series of aphorisms peculiar to him, the footballer-philosopher ...
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Looking for Eric (2009) Reviews
It score's with me ...
I think that Ken Loach has produced another winner here – it is a story of a Eric Bishop (Steve Evets), a postman going though some hard times and not being able to cope with life in general – with a painful break-up behind him, a dysfunctional home life, step kids that ignore him, he decides to escape from it all by driving the wrong way around a round-about this prompts his friends to rally around to help him – suggesting self help techniques (very comical!) and adopting role models and Eric B. adopts his main influence as Eric Cantona – who in his mind's eye becomes our Eric's life coach and mentor Eric's friends and work colleagues from the Post Office are hilarious and whenever they are on screen it is very funny – especially the character "Meatballs" – played with great aplomb by John Henshaw. Other very good performances were portrayed by Stephanie Bishop (as Lily) and of course by Eric Cantona playing himself At times this film is sad, and at others truly funny – but you do take to the characters and ride along the emotional roller-coaster – because you actually start caring about the characters and what is happening to them Just when it seemed all was lost for Eric B. and his family – there is then a superb twist in the plot (I won't give it away here) – and you won't see it coming! – that leads to a very fitting, uplifting finale to a very well told / acted / directed story I am not a Man Utd. Fan, but this film still has a lot to recommend it – and I must say, that Eric Cantona grows on you more and more as the movie goes along This film's message is not really about football – it's more about the value of friends and people you can rely on when all seems lost and as Cantona states "Trust your teammates – always – or your are nothing!" I found "Looking for Eric" to be a very enjoyable film - recommended!
A flawed masterpiece....just like Cantona himself.
Man Utd fans will obviously love this and I'm not a Utd fan. However i have to say this is the most entertaining film of Ken Loach's since Bread & Roses nearly a decade ago. It has a good story and is realistically acted by a cast of unknowns and semi-familiar faces. For a film about a legendary and iconic footballer it doesn't ram football down the throats of the non-fans. What the film does do is bring up just how important football is for many people, the way it can unite and connect them in a way that has otherwise disappeared in Britain. I won't give any of the story away but this film drags you down to a point where you wonder how the protagonist will get out of a very dire dilemma. Yet the ending is so well written you are guaranteed to come out of the cinema smiling at the way just desserts are dished out. The film is brutal in places and the language strong yet the excellent acting keeps it watchable and Monsieur Cantona himself seems very comfortable in front of a film camera (although sometimes his accent makes his dialog a little hard to understand). Cantona plays with his image wonderfully, being both self important and yet always likable and sometimes quite happy to deflate his own ego, being respectful about how lucky he was to have had such a memorable and legendary career without ever being truly arrogant (a fact a certain Mr C Ronaldo could do well to absorb) and acknowledging the role of the fans in his career. Lets put it another way, King Eric will always be remembered and respected in this country by all supporters for his great ability and the respect he had for the game and his club. Ronaldo will just be remembered as a talented but greedy young man who left probably the biggest club in the world for a larger pay packet. Its difficult for me to say any more without giving away the plot but lets just say this is a film about never giving up hope when all seems lost because sometimes help will come from the most unexpected sources.
heart warming
Don't believe a word of the hype. Looking for Eric is not a Ken Loach comedy. It is, in several places, a very funny film indeed. But it is not a comedy. At a far fetched push you might call it a rom-com or a social satire. Me? I just think it's another brilliant Loachian movie. (Can you believe he's been at it for 45, yes 45, years since he wrote three episodes for z cars)? It's so sad, so desperate in places and then, yes, so funny. And then there's Eric (Cantona). Ooh ah! And his goals. Ooh la la! And his cod (sorry sardine) philosophising. Oops ah! The Cantona character is inspired, as it is so self-deprecating- not a quality one associates with the French. I loved this film but why is it so good? I think it's the way Loach makes his characters so utterly believable and, particularly in this movie, sympathetic. And as I always, always say it's because of the writing which is nailed on by long time collaborator Paul Laverty). One of the back stories, about the elder stepson of Eric the postman (our hero played to perfection by Steve Evets in, I think, his first Loach movie) is really the backbone of the film. The eldest stepson (Gerard Kearns of Shameless fame) gets embroiled in some nasty business with a local gangland thug and threatens to destabilise Eric's whole fragile existence. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and that is certainly proved here. It's a gem. A true Brit movie classic with a wee bit of the Auld Alliance thrown in. J'adore Eric Cantona!
Never knew what hit me
I went to see this film as a colleague said it was good. I pretty much had no other idea what it was when I entered the theater. The story is well narrated, put together in the "show not tell" method. You figure it out as you go along. I found it fascinating on many levels. The character that Cantona plays adds depth and sparkle to the beginning of the story, when it all seems so lack luster. Seeing all the different stories coming together and seeing Eric pull himself together makes for a phenomenal story. At no point was I bored or did I lose interest in the movie. It was only afterward that I found out who Cantona is and that he was even played by himself. The film completely worked even without knowing this beforehand. Enjoyable, heartwarming and fascinating - I'll definitely be recommending this to friends.
Griity, realistic - fantasy
From 'Cathy Come Home' to 'Kes through to 'Raining Stones' to 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' the constant element of a Ken Loach film is striking realism. Everything is so natural, so ordinary that you stop looking at a story unfold on a big screen but look out at life going on through a massive window in the corner of the cinema. People talk like real people talk not to advance a story but to say what they're thinking, they talk over each other, round each other and sometimes stumble over their words. Events don't take place in a neat progressive order – they just happen, the way life happens. And yet Loach still manages to construct and set out these moments and these characters to tell a coherent natural story with a beginning, middle and end. Even when making a fantasy about a middle-aged man and his imaginary friend he doesn't alter the realism and naturalism of his approach one little bit. Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is on the verge of a complete breakdown moving from depression to despair. He lives with his two stepsons who treat him with contempt and use his house as a doss-house for their mates. He is still haunted by his biggest regret in his life – walking out on Lily (Stephanie Bishop) his first wife and first love nearly thirty years earlier when their daughter was still a toddler. When that now grown up daughter approaches him to help with looking after her child he realises Lily is going to become a part of his life again and he is terrified of how to deal with it or indeed if he can. His friends see that he is falling apart and rally around and try to help but it is his idol Eric Cantona (Eric Cantona) who he turns to for advice on how to cope. Cantona isn't there of course, it's all in his head but you get the impression that Eric B. knows that and that that's not the point anyway. It helps. Although this is not necessarily a comedy it has like all of Ken Loache's films some very funny moments and some very funny characters. It has some very brutal ones too. A gentle domestic scene is suddenly interrupted by a shocking and very noisy home invasion – Eric's stepsons get caught up with gangland killers – and Eric himself gets (very) publicly humiliated by that gang's leader. But at its heart this is a feel-good film and leaves you with a satisfied grin and a real sense of justice being done. – And Cantona is damn good too!