By Nigel Powlson

WHAT does it take to get a Ken Loach film into a multiplex cinema in Derby? Eric Cantona, that's all.

Loach's socially-aware, low-budget dramas have been an arthouse staple for decades but only very occasionally have his movies broken into the mainstream.

But thanks to the casting of the former Manchester United hero and part-time philosopher, Looking For Eric is likely to be his most commercially successful project in years.

Steve Evets stars as downtrodden postman Eric who married young, abandoned his wife Lily (Stephanie Bishop) when she gave birth to their daughter and, half a lifetime later, bitterly regrets it.

Now he's coming to terms with another failed relationship, two troublesome stepsons who are dallying with drugs and crime and the need to patch up his relationship with Lily before it's too late.

In desperation, he starts talking to a poster of his hero Eric Cantona who materialises in his bedroom and becomes his life coach.

Loach's film gives us a rather uneasy mix of humour, whimsy and the grimmer side of modern urban life but gets by, thanks in no small part to Cantona, who is the charismatic heart of the movie.

The Frenchman still commands the same aura that surrounded him on the football pitch (there are plenty of clips of his greatest moments) and steals every scene from the overly-natural Evets.

However, long-time Loach collaborator Paul Laverty's script is a bit disingenuous, commenting on fan disillusionment with modern football and championing breakaway team FC United, conveniently forgetting that Cantona helped launch the whole Premier League superstar bandwagon.