Title: Flashbacks of a Fool
Release Date: 2008
Director: Baillie Walsh
Writer: Baillie Walsh

Cast:
Daniel Craig: Adult Joe Scot
Julie Ordon: Carrie Ann
Gina Athans: Apple
Eve: Ophelia Franklin
Olivia Williams: Grace Scot
Jodhi May : Evelyn Adams
Keeley Hawes: Adult Jesse Scot
Claire Forlani: Adult Ruth

Run-Time: 110 mins.
Studio: Left Turn Films

So here’s the movie for those of you officially in the throes of a mid-life crisis and wondering where the hell it all went so wrong.

This British import had been popping up quite a bit on cable this summer. And since it starred the steely-eyed newest incarnation of James Bond, I decided to give it a whirl.

Having seen Daniel Craig in only one other role, as the lead in the British caper flick “Layer Cake,” I wasn’t sure what to expect from “Flashbacks of a Fool,” though the title seemed promising.

Here, Craig plays Joe Scot, a fading
and dissolute actor (is there any other kind in situations like this?) who’s just about run out of chances in Hollywood.

As the film opens, Joe’s just come off a night-long dalliance with two lovelies, and in his ravaged and hung-over state, he’s ministered to by his assistant, Ophelia Franklin, played by the rapper Eve in an understated and strong performance.

The action really begins, however, when Joe learns of the death of his childhood best friend, Boots, and has to return home to England for a funeral.

The movie then switches into a protracted flashback sequence, taking the viewer — and Joe — back to his teenaged years in a seaside English town.

In the seaside England of his imaginings, Joe’s world is cast in the pale light of a faded postcard, all gauzy and diffuse, just the sort of way you remember the endless and languid beach afternoons of your youth, when your eyes sting from suntan oil and sweat and you have that deep, good tired that means you’ll sleep soundly through the night.

Would that it was as easy to develop such affection for young Joe, who, it must be said, is something of self-absorbed ass, foreshadowing the self-absorbed ass he is destined to become as an adult.

Boots, the faithful friend, is painfully abandoned during one scene for a young glam girl named Ruth (Felicity Jones), though this scene of abandonment leads to one of the more touching sequences of the film.

If you were English and loved pop music in the middle-1970s, the chances were pretty good that you followed the glam-rock scene led by David Bowie and Mark Bolan.

Bowie and Bolan’s guitar-drenched songs, with their lyrics and look steeped in androgyny, were an antidote to the heavy, hippy rock that had preceded it.

So it’s no surprise to see Joe and young Ruth slapping on make-up and miming to a Bowie record. Nonetheless, it’s still a touching reminder of the effect the right girl can have at you when she comes along at the right time, and how much that effect is amplified if you’re a romantically inclined teenager.

Making things difficult, however, is the fact that Joe is also conducting a furtive relationship with a neighbor, Evelyn (Jodhi May), and his guilt over his duplicity prompts him to leave home.

The film shifts back to present-day, where we find Joe making an uneasy peace with the adult Ruth (Claire Forlani), who grew up to marry Boots, and is now a widower with a child.

It may have been because of the lateness of the hour with which I viewed it, but I found the film a bit difficult to follow. The fact that the dialogue also appeared to have been recorded at a level best suited for dogs was also a deterrent to enjoying the movie.

That said, there was enough conveyed in the body language of the young characters that the tentativeness and uncertainty of youth came through. And the pain in the adult Joe’s eyes was a convincing enough reminder of the profound effect the experiences of youth can have in shaping us as adults.