Flashbacks of a Fool

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DVD Reviews

Surrogates (M)
Moon (M)
The Damned United (M)
Coco Avant Chanel (M)
The September Issue (M)
Michael Jackson's This Is It (PG)
The Cove (M)
Flame and Citron (R16)
(500) Days of Summer (M)
Funny People (R16)

Taking a break from 007, Daniel Craig plays the fool of the title, British actor Joe Scott, whose womanising and drug-taking the movie opens with naked Joe in an orgy with two prostitutes have put the skids to his Hollywood stardom.

When he learns his best friend Boots has died back in England, Joe turns Reginald Perrin and takes an ocean swim into memory.

Joe recalls being a teenager (Harry Eden) one English seaside summer in the 70s, when David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Roxy Music were popular. Joe and Boots were both attracted to the same girl while a married but bored beach neighbour (Jodhi May) had the hots for young hunk Joe. 

A tragedy ensues that changes everyone's life.

This story of sexual awakening, seduction, a life-changing choice, bad luck and guilt is sufficiently engaging but feels underdeveloped. Strangely, Joe's best friend is hardly in the story and it isn't convincing that what happens at the beach would in itself turn Joe into such a self-indulgent jerk.