English director Ken Loach’s work tends to be soaked in socio-political issues. Bread and Roses concerned the plight of two Latina cleaning women as they struggled to form a union in their office building; Land and Freedom saw a young Liverpudlian travel to Spain to take on the fascists; and Ladybird Ladybird was about a young woman’s fight with social services over the care of her children. The list goes on. This then, is a bit of departure for our Ken, as he comes as close as he can at least, to making a feel-good film.

Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is a postie in the Manchester area. He is not a happy bunny. With his daughter needing to finish her exams in peace, she’s asked Eric if he’ll help out looking after his grand-child. He agrees of course, but is then confronted with the knowledge that this will mean contact with his ex-wife, whom he walked out on many years ago. This stresses him out no end.

In a bid to try and cope with this news, as well as look after his two step-sons from another marriage, Eric begins to see his idol, ex Manchester United legend Eric ‘ooh ah’ Cantona – played by the iconic Frenchman himself. Cantona – who certainly parodies the public perception of who he is, if not his real self – tries to help the other Eric with his philosophical wisdom. Cantona then attempts to get Eric’s life properly sorted.

You see, when you are French, you're too good to just walk, no?

Paul Laverty, Loach’s long term writing partner, has once again penned the script. If nothing else, it proves that all this time he had the ability to lighten up a lot of their past collaborations. To say this was an out and out comedy however, would certainly be an exaggeration. It’s at its most charming however when Eric is hanging out with the rest of his postal colleagues, as the cheeky banter flies back and forth.

And of course, as far as Cantona is concerned, since he hung up his boots, he has been no stranger to acting, particularly in his native France. And the truth is, on the surface at least, that he doesn’t actually have to do that much here. He just has to be, as he himself might say. It’s also unclear how much of Cantona’s dialogue was written by Laverty, or more likely, simply delivered on la plate by Cantona on the jour. That said, he appears to have an invisible bag over his shoulder labelled ‘swag’, containing all the scenes which he steals, which is the majority of them.

For Loach, his dabble with the lighter side of life is certainly a welcome one. Just don’t expect him to go mainstream any time soon.