Flashbacks of a Fool

Rating:

* *

Verdict:

English coastal rites of passage tale lost at sea.

Daniel Craig might have reinvigorated Bond but he's having little luck with the movies in between 007 missions.

This laboured and ill-conceived coming-of-age story has him as a washed-up drug-damaged Brit movie star. His role bookends a flashback story about the fateful teenage summer which evidently turned him into such a troubled soul as an adult. Albeit one living in a spectacular coastal house with an income - as we can see from the woozy opening credits - which stretches to cocaine-powered three-ways with hookers.

Hearing about the death of a childhood friend, he goes for a wander into the surf while his mind is cast back to his hazy teenage years of the early 70s in an idyllic English seaside town - South African locations stand in for both California and Britain and neither convince much.

Back then something terrible happened to young Joe, just as he got to grips with his impending manhood - with help from an older neighbour.

But among the movie's chief problems is how the contemporary bookends and the central period section of the movie simply don't gel as whole.

While the death of Joe's childhood mate "Boots" might be the film's catalyst, the character himself barely registers anywhere else.

Craig's involvement - though he isn't actually in the movie for long - apparently helped get backing for the film penned by his friend, music video director Walsh who attracted a particularly strong female cast headed by Williams as young Joe's mother.

Craig's role might be admirably self-deprecating but it ends up the only interesting thing in a film that can't rise above its clumsy title or its malnourished screenplay.

Russell Baillie

Cast:

Daniel Craig (pictured), Olivia Williams, Jodhi May

Director:

Baillie Walsh

Rating:

R16 (violence, offensive language, drug use, sex scenes)

Running time:

113mins