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Flashbacks of a Fool (2008)

Director: Baillie Walsh

Time Out rating

Average user rating

45 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

In a scene reminiscent of the ending of Robert Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ – where Sterling Hayden’s suicidal writer strolls out into the sea from his Malibu house – Daniel Craig’s washed-out fortysomething writer, Joe Scott, takes a similarly despairing swim into the Pacific and remembers – in lengthy flashback – his fateful sexual and emotional rites-of-passage 30 years earlier in the glam rock-soundtracked 1970s, in a small seaside town in the south-west of England.

Ex-commercials director Baillie Walsh, in moving country and decade, executes a jarring change of mood, milieu and genre. We are hardly accustomed to his high-tech ’Scope images of the Hollywood elite’s drug- and sex-addled playgrounds, before we’re whisked back to the deceptively snugger, old-fashioned world of this fucked-up career exile’s youth. But it’s hard to read the meaning of his fateful escapades in this world of gaming arcades and rundown beach huts, viewed as they are through the distorting lens of the older Joe’s memory.

The result is an ambitious but disappointing, regret-filled psycho-drama. Some individual scenes are impressive: a portentous, Ian McEwan-lite set-piece involving playing children or the scene illustrating the confusion and nascent vanity of the teenage Joe (the handsome-featured but limited Harry Eden) accepting sex with a conflicted, unhappily married neighbour (Jodhi May), knowing it will disappoint his fellow Bowie-loving first love (the excellent Felicity Jones). But, overall, Walsh’s use of music (Scott Walker) and glossy ‘mid-Atlantic’ direction seems more pretentious than evocative and unsuited to the material, beaching too many of the actors’ performances, not least Craig’s, whose sketchy role precludes any sort of audience sympathy or emotional involvement.

Author: Wally Hammond

Time Out London Issue 1965: April 17 - 23, 2008

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User reviews of this film

mick dillon said...

Posted on Jan 14 2012 17:04 A couple of years ago i saw this film advertised on tv,and the critic trashed it, so i thought 'if the critic hates it it must be worth a look'. Imagine my surprise when 'The scene of scenes comes out of the blue'. I confess to a few tears being shed. Roxy Music's music in general ,and 'if there is something' in particular ,was the backing track for a very special -sometimes insane- period of my life from about 1972-77. I sometimes get frustrated when bands of that era like Floyd and Led Zepelin get lots of P.R. ,when amongst all the people i knew ,Roxy were the stand out band of that era. Moreover they were a band that influenced so many people who became iconic in their own way. Apart from the shear love of the music ,the film is so evocative of lost youth ,and the regrets of youth. As a piece of social history it doesn't just pay tribute to the music of that era,but also to features ,such as the sacred 'front room' with its pile carpet ,that no one is allowed to enter. This is the film of the book that everyone of that era wanted to write,but just didn't get around to ...

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john from england said...

Posted on Sep 16 2011 22:47 was about to go to bed the other night when this came on the telly. I thought I would give it a couple of minutes before heading upstairs. Two hours later, I finally went to bed. I was very shocked at how good this film was. I remember seeing the trailer in the cinema a couple of years ago and thinking "there's one to miss". How wrong could I have been. Brilliant film. Great acting and story and really caught how it was to grow up in england in the seventies. The soundtrack is fantastic especially the Roxy Music song that is central to the film. The scene already mentioned where they are lip syncing made me smile cos we have all done that "when you were young". Been straight out and bought the DVD and soundtrack CD. (cant get Bryan Ferry's voice out of my head!!)

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CJC said...

Posted on Sep 16 2011 15:14 Lovely film, totally captured for me all those wonderful feelings of being young, looking back in your 40's at the way life has turned out, how you wished you just said something to that special someone and never did 'cos it wasn't cool to do so at that young age ... it did, like others, make me ache for those times, to be there again, and like the film, the reality of how life goes on with the turns & choices we make through life ... very thought provoking - feel just the same as reviewer Craig said, I ache to tell that special someone I had how much they meant to me and how much I miss them and what could have been ... best film I've seen in a long time - thank you

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Gail said...

Posted on Sep 16 2011 12:13 Just happened to flick onto this fim on TV. I really enjoyed it. The scene with the young Ruth and Joe lip syncing to Roxy Music took me back. That was me when I was a teenager, the clothes, the music, the boy I fancied with the eye liner. I thought the film was great, it made me cry at the end. The film and music are still stuck in my head.

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nitin kene said...

Posted on Jul 17 2011 13:50 JUST SAW THE MOVIE,
A VERY EMOTIONAL AND HEART TOUCHING MOVIE.
LEARNING LESSON...NEVER EVER TAKE ANY CHANCES WITH LIFE.,BE SURE WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF IT,EVERY TIME.
I LOVED WATCHING THE MOVIE.

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Gene W said...

Posted on May 13 2011 08:20 Very impressive film. Great direction and choice of camera shots. However, still confused about ending. Did she break down upon receiving the letter because she was so appalled and shocked that he'd have the nerve to bring up something so trival as there first encounter"? there's no way those were tears from her reminscing about joe...

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Craig said...

Posted on Dec 15 2010 06:31 Flashbacks of a Fool is an odd movie. It is subtle and slow with a few moments that shock you or take your breath away. Better than any other movie in twenty years it has taken me back to that amazing feeling of being 15 and falling in love, of touching the hand of that one amazing, special, magical girl. I saw it weeks ago and I can't get the song "If There Was Something" out of my head. Even now it makes me sad for my youth.
I want desperately to send this movie to that one girl in my life, along with the song that always reminds me of her, just to let her know how special she was to me.
This movie may not blow your socks off, but it will ache inside you and weeks later you will come to a review site, wondering if it did the same for others. Turns out it did. Well done.

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davidmayer said...

Posted on Oct 20 2010 10:03 Watched this film for the first time last week and nearly gave it up after 25 minutes. However after Daniel Craig went into the water and the flashbacks kicked in the film really took off. The scene with the excellent Harry Eden and gorgeous Felicity Jones miming to the great Roxy Music track was an absolute cineme classic. It certainly captured the feeling of your first real teenage love. I am sure that we all have felt like that at once in our life. The film then continued in a positive mode when the plot was revealed. The scene in the cemetry between Daniel Craig and Claire Forlani was both moving and brilliantly acted.It would have been nice if Joe and Ruth would have got closer and embraced but this would have made the plot tacky and sugary. The final scene between Claire and the lovely Keily Hawes was both tear jerking and emotional. It was most appropriate that the film ended with the haunting vibes of Bryan Ferry and reliving that great scene between the young Joe and Ruth, which will live with me for a long time.
Excellent film, thoroughly recommendable, brilliant locations,fabulous music score and wonderful casting. Olivia Williams as Joes mother was particularly good in her supporting role. Daniel Craig was excellent throughout particularly in the second half of the film and proved he was not a one trick pony 007. However the star of the film for me was the fabulous Felicity Jones who was both sensational and stunning in what for me was one of cinemas greatest ever scenes.
I can not stop watching this film over and over again

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jordansmith2008@hotmail.c said...

Posted on Oct 16 2010 12:55 l really enjoyed this movie and its tragic "learn from past mistakes and don't take your life for granted" attitude, a very well set sea-side town in 1970s Britain was beautifully recreated.

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Yeasin Khan said...

Posted on Jul 03 2010 19:11 Daniel Craig is a great actor as we know . He proved it again that though the script was not too long but the movie will take place in your mind for a long time, after you see it , Its only because of Daniel Craig , amazing...

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One-Eyed-Jacks said...

Posted on Apr 29 2010 12:47 Brilliant, couldn't stop watching it. The visual aspect were great as was the acting, but the really impressive part was the story! Incredible composition, the kind of thing that should be taught in creative writing classes. Example: I particularly appreciated using water; ponds, the ocean, a storm off the sea, even a glass of water he gags on, as metaphorical for a spiritual presence. When he enters the ocean, he's already spiritually dead, he just wants to get the physical part over with. But the ocean wouldn't take him, it instead cough's him back up onto the shore, as if to say 'it's not your time yet, you've got a job to do...', and he exits the ocean like a child reborn. Sound familiar? Minor continuity issues, not even worth considering. POWERFUL script!!!

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Jeff said...

Posted on Jan 02 2010 02:30 I think it's sad that the woman using the id "impossible" can't enjoy this film because she is too disturbed by the sex scenes. Those scenes needed to be in there and made the film very real to me because of them. I really identified with the main character in this film more than any other I’ve seen in a long time. This woman's critique makes me think she's another judgmental fanatical Puritanical American Mega-church member that should just watch religious TV instead of anything meaningful. How sad she is but at the same time an awful person who likely pushes for more censorship in the US. Sorry but I'm just SO sick of people like her in America.

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jon said...

Posted on Sep 17 2009 03:10 Have been awhile I haven't seen such a good movie. I loved it and I enjoyed the entire movie. The story to me sounded quite a real-life one, not a normal teen years and sexual events, followed by adult desires when money and fame is not short in the 40's. Also the end was expected to be so and I would have been surprised to see a different one. Life continues with a struggle to cope with identity, finding love and peace. Don't understand the negative reviews but don't care much.
thank you for this great movie

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Impossible said...

Posted on May 11 2009 00:28 A movie about poor choices.
Although a great story, it was ruined by some poor choices in direction and editing, that I felt, added nothing to the film and ruined the enjoyment of an overall well made movie and good story. The sexually crude gangsta rap really was quite particularly repulsive over the credits at the end and really detracted from the quality of the film. Also the first the opening orgy was unnecessarily graphic in order to reveal that DC had descended into a hedonistic and superficial lifestyle. The masturbation scene in the ghost train between the two teenage friends was also a poor choice in telling the story. Apparently it revealed how comfortable thy where in each others presence, which was more gross than revealing of this facet to their relationship. I was not comfortable with this and so I could not recommend it to my friends. The R rating in my opinion would reduce its box office success overall and I think reduced the quality of the well made sections of the film.

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Jon Davies said...

Posted on Jan 21 2009 21:46 Haven't seen a film in a long while that just did so many things right - shooting, casting, script, location - they all should be so proud. None of the standard cliches or compromises that a lot of US & UK movies seem to get laden with to make them more 'marketable'.

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