IFFB review: "Looking for Eric"

Looking for Eric (three stars)

117 MINUTES | SOMERVILLE THEATRE: APRIL 25 @ 2:30 P.M.

Like Fatih Akin and "Soul Kitchen" below, Ken Loach, the doyen of British neo-realism,  also deserves a break, in his case from the heavy-lifting of his grim, kitchen sink working class lamrnts such as "Sweet Sixteen" and doomed Irish Rebellion period tragedies such as "The Wind That Shakes the Barley." His effort at levity, however, comes off somewhat better than Akin's. Eric (Steve Evets), a fifty-something Manchester postman, is at his wit's end, having to confront his past with his first wife Lily (Stephanie Bishop), whom he blew off in a panic attack after the birth of a baby three decades ago. Add to that the shenanigans of his two teen-aged stepsons, whom,  in a case of poetic justice, he was stuck with when his second wife left him. To the rescue, a-la "Play Again Sam," comes another Eric, Manchester United superstar Eric Cantona (played by Cantons himself, who also produced the film), who offers gnomic, French-accented advice such as "She ‘ates you. Right. Now we're getting somewhere" and "You've got to trust your mates." It makes more sense, perhaps, if you have smoked as much pot as Eric has. Things get a little rough when Loach occasionally resorts to form, what with the attack dog, the neighborhood psychopath, and naked police aggression. But nothing a little team spirit can't handle.