Looking for Eric is easily the most commercially accessible of the Loach films I've seen, one of the lightest and least somber. It's also wildly structureless and uneven.
Looking for Eric
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, France, Italy · 2009
1h 59m
Director Ken Loach
Starring Eric Cantona, Steve Evets, Stephanie Bishop, John Henshaw
Genre Comedy, Drama
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Eric is a middle-aged postman and football fanatic who’s been having a rough time ever since his wife left. Suddenly his favorite football player, Eric Cantona of Manchester United, appears and gives him life advice — in his hallucinations. With the philosophical athlete in his corner, Eric may be able to turn his life around.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Mr. Loach’s touch is a bit lighter here. “Sweet Sixteen” is a coming-of-age story shot through the lens of social tragedy, while “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” is an epic of historical disaster. Looking for Eric is, by comparison, gentle and sweet and often very funny.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
The actors are up to the challenges of the many serious moments, but the sweetest ones are the most memorable. It's nice to see Loach's gentler side.
A mashup of Nick Hornby and Martin Scorsese? Why not?
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The British director Ken Loach can be a master of working-class realism, but not in this cranky, rudderless shambles.
The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett
Very funny and a bit sentimental, it's naturalistic comedy of the highest order, with Evets and Henshaw standouts among a terrific cast.
Movieline by Stephanie Zacharek
What’s remarkable about Looking for Eric is the number of ways in which it ALMOST works.
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