Flashbacks of a Fool

Flashbacks of a Fool.....

     

Overall is a decent little flick. Hey I myself liked it but I do understand the criticisms towards it. It's not a GREAT movie by any means even the one reviewer up above who gave a "fresh" review did say it was "stylish but empty" and I agree overall it was but at the same time I dont believe it was a horrid movie. Sure it may not be everyones cup of tea, after all nothing is, but I'm certain a movie like this has it's niche audience.

Not to ruin it for anyone but Daniel Craig does have only a limtied amount of screen time in this film. He's in for at least 20 minutes at the start and he appears again at the end. He plays a Hollywood movie star named Joe Scott that came from England as a teen. In the beginning of the film his career is going downhill, his drinking problems are making him irritable and difficult to work with, he's losing his self discipline, living a life of excess & moral decay which is spiraling out of control. Alienating the very people who had a major hand in his success, who he still needs to help him. He's in danger of being a has been and disappearing altogether. You know it's Hollywood after all, there's always the fresh new thing, which of course is always in demand, no one wants to pay attention to the musty old icons who have had their day but can't or wont change with the times. He finds himself on a beach refelecting on his childhood, hence the reason for the title "Flashbacks of a Fool"'

So with that in mind the main body of the movie deals with the young Joe Scott, and his memories of his childhood, growing up in his small humble village by the sea,. Memories of his mom & sister, their neighboors & his best friend, and the first girl that he really ever liked, and the mistakes that he made along the way in terms of wrong moral choices and mistakes and regrets that eventually caused to drive him away from home at a young age. When we all get bummed about our lives all of us tend to reflect back on our past too to see how things went wrong, well basically that's sort of what this movie is. Like I said Craig has only some screen time in the start of the film and at the end, the main focus is on the young man who's playing his younger self for most of the movie.

There are a few scenes in this that I love, one scene lives in my memory still, it's etched in my mind but overall this is the kind of film that's nothing to shout about but even so I still did like it and it's interesting Craig chose to do a film like this. If you watch this look at it with an open mind, it's got a great cast like Mark Strong, Danile Craig, Jodhi May (Last of the Mohicans anyone?) etc. You may find yourself liking it too.