Memories Of A Geezer

Flashbacks Of A Fool, Odeon Telford, Saturday April 19 2008, 2.45pm.

CAUTION: CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS.

In Baillie Walsh's Flashbacks Of A Fool Daniel Craig plays a washed-up Hollywood star who's woken up by his housemaid (Eve, in a breakthrough bit of casting for a black woman) after a coke-and-hookers orgy and wonders where it all went wrong. Thanks to the titular flashbacks to his youth we find it all started with a few quick schoolboy bangs with Jodhi May's bored, busty housewife that lead to a more explosive climax elsewhere. Discussing where the movie went tits-up, however, may take slightly longer to explain.

The film is pretty to look at, but is dreadfully dull for the most part, and some strong, serviceable performances are often hamstrung by the fact that too much screentime is given to characters that don't move the plot forward while pivotal parts are marginalised to the extent that the whole story premise is fatally undermined. Aside from Jodhi May and a striking Felicity Jones as the glam racket-loving schooldays sweetheart, few come out of the film with any credit, which often looks like a vanity project to enable British actors like Mark Strong and Emilia Fox to showcase their American accents, and sees producer/star Craig packing more wood in his performance than he does inside his tight-fitting trunks. Indeed, just thinking about Flashbacks Of A Fool in any detail is enough to induce Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in any mug punter silly enough to part with their hard-earned six quid for this flat farrago. A word to the wise, then: avoid.