Eric (2024)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on June 14, 2024 @ tonymacklin.net.

Eric (Netflix) is a six episode miniseries that meanders into about twelve subplots. At times it seems as baffled as its protagonist Vincent Anderson (Benedict Cumberbatch), a master puppeteer who is searching for his nine year old son Edgar (Ivan Howe), who has vanished.

The basic plot should be compelling, but the writer Abi Morgan, director Lucy Forbes, and the three editors keep cutting to other subplots and prevent emotion from gaining any fruition. Their style is deflection.

Eric is the story of a father trying to come to terms with his relationships, especially the inadequate one with his son.

But there are other plots that crimp the film's focus. A detective (McKInley Belcher) is still on a case that was supposedly solved, there is a relationship with his partner dying of AIDS, there is the murder of a detective, there is woman who has lost her son and lacks justice, there is life of the homeless in the subway tunnels, there is drug addiction and alcoholism, there is police corruption and civil corruption, there is a marriage falling apart, and an affair, and on and on.

At the forefront there is a gifted puppeteer (Cumberbatch) who creates a new character as his television career is collapsing. The new character, who was first conceived by his talented son, is a seven foot furry hulk named Eric that follows Vincent and speaks to him.

It's no wonder the show keeps changing the topic.

If you think this description is wayward, you should see the miniseries.

Of course, it's worth seeing for the performance of Benedict Cumberbatch. He is an actor of great versatility. [I recently saw him in the three part To the Ends of the Earth (2004), where he played an upper class Englishman on a voyage to Australia]. It's hard to imagine the same actor in Eric.

Admittedly, Cumberbatch in Eric on occasion is wobbly and redundant, but he still brings special ability to the role.

Gabby Hoffmann (the child in Field of Dreams 1989) is unappealing as Vincent's wife.

One of the problems with Welsh playwright Abi Morgan's screenplay is that the characters are more stark than human. An exception is Clarke Peters as a building super who invests his role with palpable humanity. Also, an actor who brings humanity to his role of Yuusuf is Bamar Kane, who calls Edgar "little man," and relates personally to him.

Perhaps another difficulty is that most of the filmmakers are English and they don't feel the New York ambience. Director Lucy Forbes is English as is her cinematographer Benedict Spence. Olly Taylor, an actual puppeteer, is British.

Writer Morgan lived in New York for a while, but she's not a native New Yorker. It's very difficult to capture for an outsider. Clint Eastwood couldn't do it when he directed Jersey Boys (2014).

Morgan seems overwhelmed by the city's diversity. So she tries to do too much.

When Eric gets away from Puppetry, it's tangled strings.

© 2000-2024 Tony Macklin