Looking for Eric: Critic Reviews

It's a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes that don't match.

And the film's riotous climax deftly turns grim social realism into action-slapstick revenge farce. Not something Mr. Loach has tried before, and something he turns out to do rather well.

Looking For Eric isn't a Loach masterpiece, but it's great fun and is set fair to be his first commercial smash since Kes. No one would begrudge him a well-earned box-office hit from such an amiable film.

Beginning in grim kitchen-sink territory, the movie gets lighter and goofier as it goes, and if it's a bit of a mess, it's also a pick-me-up that suggests how hard and how rewarding it can be to set a life back on course.

At times it falls flat, or fails to rise. More often than not, though, it's a heartbreaker.

Loach can't resolve this picture's contradictory impulses, but he has made the most entertaining sports film in a while. And I didn't know Cantona from a can of gray English peas.

[A] well-meaning misfire.

Cantona, big and bearded, is a genial Gallic guru. It's hard not to be swayed by his optimism, his sagacity, his generosity. And the optimism and generosity of Loach's film.

In a rousing change of pace, England's master of dramatized poverty, marginalization and despair dabbles in comedy, fantasy, soccer and wish-fulfillment, with charming, audience-pleasing results.

Looking for Eric is a pleasant surprise -- somehow both ambitious and easygoing, funny and worrisome.

It's about low-rent failures who survive by finding optimism through humor and friendship. It's uneven, but its optimistic message -- lost causes can find strength through friendship and bonding -- is contagious.

As in many of Laverty's scripts, problems of overall tone and character development aren't solved by Loach's easygoing direction, though when it works, "Eric" has many incidental pleasures.

A mashup of Nick Hornby and Martin Scorsese? Why not?

The motley crew of buddies, played by a passel of Manchester stand-up comedians, is a distinctive and amusing lot, and Evets does a great job in the lead

"Looking for Eric" should connect with moviegoers who enjoy clever comic writing with a touch of fantasy plus fans of any sport that has legendary heroes. It looks set to be Loach's biggest mainstream hit.

Cantona, whose five-year run with United ended with his unexpected retirement in 1997, plays himself with a self-deprecating charm that is hard to resist, and Evets, a hardscrabble actor who's knocked around for years, is unforgettable...

Whimsical tale of two Erics is a winner.

A conventional and entirely dishonest turn of events ... undermine[s] everything that has come before in Looking for Eric.

Loachov "cinema verite" stil, prema kojemu prosječni reality izgleda namjeten, predstavljat će popriličnu novinu za obične gledatelje

The film feels a little slow at times, but its characters always seem real, and the final scene is genuinely heartwarming...

Looking for Eric would be a whole lot better if it never found Eric.

An unpersuasive exercise in what might be called kitchen-sink magic realism...

A magical realist comedy that flirts uncomfortably with serious drama at times, the film sees its veteran director fouling due to an unsure grip on his material.