Looking for Eric has one major novelty: Eric Cantona.

While you may never have been aware of the 'French Assassin' in his golden years during the nineties, you can’t help but be impressed by his presence, bravura and all round va-va-voom.

While the personality of Cantona is central to the movie, his role is peripheral. The real core of the movie is depressive postman Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) who is struggling to come to terms with his lifelong mental illness and troubled personal life.

The plot begins with the depiction of Eric’s life in working-class Manchester, living in a ramshackle house with his two dysfunctional teenaged sons and whoever they decide to bring home on any given night.

His daughter brings him back into contact with his long estranged ex-wife Lily (Stephanie Bishop), forcing him to come to terms with his messy past and the descent of his life into the present state. With the help of his laddish workmates, a bit of self-help and a few joints, he revives his fortunes.

The rub comes from the deviance of his sons who become involved with a group of gangsters, bringing renewed pressure on the family and putting it up to the recently revived Eric.

Where does Cantona fit into this working-class parable? Suffice to say that his aura is his main contribution, serving as a kind of role model for the less illustrious Eric, proving that sometimes insanity is its own cure.

Cantona also appears in his own arena of the football field, through a series of goal clips that are cut into the film at various points.

While the technique is sometimes awkward, they serve to emphasise the core of the plot and give a realistic picture of what much of the movie gestures at.

As you’d expect with Loach, there is a degree of bluff and bluster about the toil and enslavement of the working class, mainly behind some cutting observation on the course that society and more importantly football clubs have taken in the last decade.

The rise of gun violence is somehow neatly tied with the rise of ticket prices in Old Trafford and ample opportunity is provided to get misty-eyed at the sight of Cantona’s erect collar and painfully minimal goal celebrations. Ah, when men were men….

Despite running half an hour longer than it should and dragging through too many scenes in the middle of the two hours, Looking for Eric is a brave effort that pulls off some audacious technical coups… á la Cantona.

- Eoin Delap

LIKE THE SOUND OF LOOKING FOR ERIC? CHECK OUT THE TEASER TRAILER BELOW: