"I Am Not A Man; I Am Cantona!"

After my fourth trip to IKEA yesterday (don't ask - it's sometimes difficult here without a car, so you take what you can get), I'd planned all week long to try out Lausanne's open air theater. It's down literally right on the edge of Lac Lèman, and it's really terrific with the little beer garden area where there are different boothes for snacks and food, beer, sweet girlie drinks, Nespresso coffee, or your basic assortment of bottled drinks (suppose popcorn was available too). The seats are just card table chairs, but the screen and audio are very good. They played lots of dramatic movie tracks (think John Williams) as the screen raised up, so it really gave you the sense of being "at the movies," if you know what I mean. My friend Johnny from Charlotte would love it.

I'd been excited about this all week, because Into the Wild was the featured film. It's based on a true story of this Emory kid who graduates college only to shun his trust fund family and strike out on his own adventure ending up in the Alaskan wilderness (e.g the "wild"). It's a mixed bag, as he ends up getting himself killed in the end, but a very good flick. Also, the soundtrack is completely comprised of original Eddie Vetter (from Pearl Jam fame) tunes, which would've been awesome on the theater's speaker system.

Problem was: I was so excited about the movie that I apparently completely overlooked the date. Turns out that Into the Wild is playing Monday night, not Saturday night...something I didn't know until I was sitting there and the movie actually started with some random scene I didn't remember. As the intro credits began, the title Looking for Eric flashed up on the screen. Being the eternal optimist that I am (?), I immediately was comforted by the fact that the movie was in English. Turns out, it was British English with Manchester accents, so I still only understood about 80% of what was said.

The movie was not bad. It covered a divorced, middle-aged postman who has this teenager-like admiration for former Manchester United footballer (soccer player) Eric Cantona, constant troubles with his unruly step-sons, and layers of emotional distress from leaving his young wife and baby thirty years before. The crowd definitley thought it was a comedy, based on its frequent outbursts, but the un-American English must have prevented me from seeing it this way. Not to say there weren't funny parts, but if you've ever watched PBS you've seen that the Brits view comedy a little differently than Americans. The funnier parts relate to the main character's hallucinations of Eric Cantona, who visits him at his lowest points and remains the constant philosopher and cheerleader..."Say 'non' like a Frenchman! Non!"

I will give Looking for Eric three out of five stars and would recommend it. Though I would recommend Into the Wild even more.