Looking for Eric

Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is a British postal worker who’s life has been spiraling downward for years – and he finally seems to be giving up. Looking for Eric begins with him at the driver’s wheel of a car racing haphazardly down the wrong way a busy road. He is close to breaking, tears fall as he cries out the name Lily. In a tense and well edited sequence Eric weaves through the oncoming  traffic - tight shots of his troubled face keeping us guessing what is happening. Why is he doing this? Is he trying to kill himself? Who is Lily? His car barely avoids collision after collision until the sound of an off-screen crash brings the tension to a sudden and inevitable conclusion.

Looking for Eric is a new film by Ken Loach (Bread and Roses, My Name is Joe, The Wind that Shakes the Barley). Loach is a veteran British filmmaker who works in both documentary and narrative and creates stories in the style of “Social Realism” – his characters are usually working class people struggling with economic or political obstacles who ultimately retain their dignity and find ways to go on with life, difficult as it may be. Like the character in Harry Brown (played by Michael Caine), another well made recent British film, Eric is a pensioner who must confront the brutal side of British life, ultimately finding a way to take on the reality of violence and youth in modern English society. Unlike Harry Brown, which amps up the horror quotient ala Taxi Driver and Clockwork Orange, Loach’s film is, at heart, a comedy. Heartbreak and the disappointment of life are balanced with humor, likeable characters, and the fantasy intervention of a famous and unconventional sports star (Eric Cartona, playing himself).

Loach’s films have a sense of relaxed spontaneity – he is an actor’s director who works with tightly scripted stories while creating an atmosphere of creative freedom between camera and the actor. He uses hand-held and long-take shooting styles to let scenes develop and foster an ease of performance that is naturalistic, not constructed. Early in the film there is a funny and important scene in which Eric’s co-workers have gathered at his home to help him get through the funk he has settled into. Meatballs (John Henshhaw) - the working class leader of the small group of seeming misfits – has found a plan in a self- help psychology book. The men each visualize a very important person who is sympathetic to themselves. The mix of new age and working man is touching and humorous – but the plan seems to backfire when they discover that Eric has been hoarding mail in a cupboard he was supposed to be delivering. But we soon learn that Eric has taken the exercise to heart – his “sympathetic person” – the soccer great Eric Cartona – appears in his bedroom for a series of heart-to-heart talks about the hopes and dreams of the fallen postman.

For British soccer fans the inclusion of Cartona in the narrative is like the role of Mike Tyson in Hangover – only more so. Cartona’s character is central to Steve’s rediscovery of his own dignity and a substantial element in the likeability of the narrative. Cartona was a French soccer champion who ran afoul of the league and ultimately crossed the channel, where he had his greatest years with Manchester United, a team he lead to a number of championships. He was beloved and a troublemaker, finally leaving soccer for a film career.

What makes the elements of the film work so well - the working-class struggles, Eric losing control of his stepsons who are falling into a petty criminal life, a broken marriage from his youth that he has never gotten over, the inevitable confrontation with gangsters who are threatening his family - is that the story never falls into a sense of self-pity or despair. Eric the postman is down on himself, he has had some tough breaks, but he also has the ability to keep his mind open to the possibility that there might be some way out. He listens to his friends, creates a fictional buddy who really does give him support, and begins to find hope in the back and forth dialogue with the fantasy version of his biggest hero.

The acting in the film is first rate. Evets is a former musician who creates a vulnerable and determined persona who is easy to like. Cartona is just right as the arrogant and confident fictional representation of himself. The moments shared by the two characters are funny and touching – they relive (through sports footage that the audience sees) some of Cartona’s greatest soccer moments while wrestling with Eric’s family and personal dilemmas.  Although it is clear that Cartona is imaginary, Eric never doubts the presence of his new friend, which makes the sequences feel sincere and realistic. Stephanie Bishop plays Lily, Eric’s former wife, bringing a survivor’s strength to the role that makes her attractive and believable.

There is an almost disdain for "professional" lighting in the film that can seem off-putting at first. In the early bedroom scenes, when Eric wakes up from his funk, there are no “cheating” fill lights – the image is murky and low-contrast. But later, when Cartona joins Eric, the shades open and natural light brightens things up in both the room and his disposition. The only somewhat elaborate use of lighting is in a flashback to the moment when Eric and Lily first meet during a high-school dance. It’s an exhilarating sequence, different in style from the rest of the film and fitting to the memory that Eric has held so closely for over thirty years.

Looking for Eric is a “serious-comedy” with characters who are full of life and a story that brings together fantasy and realism in a funny and satisfying way. It’s about friendship, finding oneself, and discovering that in life, or at least in comedies, there may be second chances.

                                    Thomas W. Campbell