Looking For Eric

With the football season over and transfer rumours the only football related entertainment at present, I was relieved to get out to the cinema last night and watch the well publicised Eric Cantona film, Looking For Eric. I wasn’t expecting a classic, I was just looking forward to seeing a bit of the great man and some clips of his great goals.

All in all though, it was a bloody good film. I’m not sure how well it would go down outside of the North, but there was plenty of subtle and obvious humour, with John Henshaw, whose a blue in real life, getting the best of the laughs probably.

The tension between FC United and United was highlighted by Justin Moorhouse, a devoted red in real life, following FC in the film, and leading a chant of theirs in the local.

Gerard Kearns (Ian Gallagher in Shameless), who is a blue in real life, played the up-to-no-good stepson, who gives the main character, Eric Bishop, a lot to think about. Steve Evets takes on the role of downtrodden postman Eric, whose second wife left him years ago to look after her two sons. He’s depressed and fed up before finding a friend in the King, who appears to him in his room, usually when he’s smoked a joint or two. Cantona gives him the confidence and self-belief to go and make something of himself, sort out his two stepsons, go and get the girl and finally stand up for himself.

Cantona plays a secondary role to postman Eric, but is always the main focus of the film, with every new dilemma giving Cantona the opportunity to present his philosophy on the situation, trying to help the postie. Eventually though, the postman cracks:“I’m fucking up to here with your philosophy. I’m still getting over the sardines one, for chrissakes!”

The storyline could have been shit and I’d still probably have loved it but everything else going on in the film outside of Cantona was entertaining and funny enough to keep interest. No fan of our rivals would enjoy it, but people who don’t care for football would probably get a kick out of it, whilst I can’t imagine any United fan not loving it.

I won’t give it all away but I’d definitely recommend you going to see it!

“I am not a man, I am Cantona.”