Top cast Edit. Eve Ophelia Franklin as Ophelia Franklin. Gina Athans Apple as Apple. Annabel Linder Dawn as Dawn. Angie Ruiz Priscilla as Priscilla. Pope Jerrod Waiter as Waiter. Darron Meyer Valet as Valet. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. An aging Hollywood star, Joe Scott, lives a life of narcissistic hedonism, observed by his laconic personal assistant, Ophelia.
The death of his childhood best friend, Boots, takes our protagonist, and the movie, into an extended flashback to a sea-side town in 's Britain. Hollywood star Joe is now a teenage boy in a tentative relationship with a school-girl called Ruth. Further, his mother's friend, Evelyn, is attempting to seduce him.
Engulfed by guilt at the unintended, tragic consequences of his subterfuge, he leaves home. The movie then switches back to contemporary Hollywood. Joe confronts his fear and returns to England for a difficult meeting with Ruth, who had gone on to marry Boots and has been a left a poor widow. Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use.
Did you know Edit. Trivia Feature film debut of Felicity Jones. They only had rear California plates. California is a front and rear plate State. Soundtracks Fils de Under license from Universal Music Operations. User reviews 69 Review. Top review. A simple, but highly compelling and emotive tale. How far do our decisions in life take us, and how long do we eventually live by the ripples that such choices create? Flashbacks of a Fool, the debut feature from writer and director Ballie Walsh, takes it upon itself to divulge in such questions, and the answers that it gives, although extremely simplified and a little underwhelming in scope, nevertheless pack a resounding and emotional punch.
Taking its time to develop rounded characters that stay within the confines of real life whilst managing to retain a sense of compelling relevancy, the feature tells a story that most audiences should be able to take something from. Sure it sometimes moves at a snail's pace, and suffers from an extremely incoherent third act, yet despite the movie's biggest problems, it's the things that Walsh does right that makes Flashbacks such an enjoyable drama for anyone that likes to explore the darker sides of human desire.
A story with three distinct, crudely sewn together acts, Flashbacks of a Fool tells the story of a has-been actor, now spending most of his days drinking, doing drugs and paying women to sleep with him.
Opening with current day Joe Scott Daniel Craig the movie introduces us to the waster in a very poignant and effective first act that details Joe's incessant need for indulgence at the expense of everyone around him.
This in turn then sets up the real meat of the story, which in turn is set a good twenty or thirty years in the past, back in Joe's teenage years.
Through this lens we observe Joe as he chooses the paths that eventually lead to the character we have so far been introduced to. Of course, we know instinctively where it's all going to go, and Walsh's script sometimes gets caught up in details involving this development, but in turn it is these details that give Flashbacks its heart and soul.
The details I'm referring to of course are little things called characters; Walsh makes sure to keep Flashbacks of a Fool rich in characterization, by using only a minimum ensemble. Through this the film manages to convey both the character of Joe and his decisions in an objective light; we see the decisions he makes, and the people that those decisions affect, most of the time without him realizing. Coming full circle with a scene that capitalizes on the real selfish nature of both his and another character's choices, the movie achieves its resonating moment of poignancy through a death that is built upon drawing tears.
Such is Flashbacks of a Fool's biggest problem; its framing and structure. Although each segment is finely told and expertly shot, the script always comes across as being informant, but incoherently so.
As a result, the middle act never truly feels connected to the two that bookmark it, and obviously certain characterisation is null and negated as a consequence. The performances from Craig, and standout Harry Eden who plays Joe as a teenager, are solid enough, and play to the same grounding personality traits to offer a sense of progression from A to B, yet the script's slapped together and undeveloped feel often distracts away from these highlights. Nevertheless, with a wonderful ensemble cast mostly comprising of minor-star English talents, Flashbacks isn't just a powerful, and relevant story told with three dimensional characters; the cast themselves embody their personas effectively and with great consistency, at least until the third act.
By Leslie Felperin. Action kicks off in contempo Southern California where movie star Joe Scot Craig is having a cocaine-fuelled threesome with two prostitutes filmed with modesty-preserving distorting lens , in his beach-side mansion.
Joe gets even less love over lunch from his agent Manny Mark Strong , who sacks him as a client, citing his out-of-control behavior. On top of all that, Joe gets a phone call from his mother in England telling him someone named Boots has died, news which devastates Joe. Joe then walks into the ocean fully clothed, suggesting A Star Will Die in an expanse of sun-sparkled water while the score swells. The teenage Joe played now by Harry Eden lives in a shabby-chic beach hut with his mother Grace Olivia Williams , little sister Jesse Mia Clifford , and a woman named Peggy Tickell Helen McCrory , whose relationship to the family is never made very clear.
Suspicion rises that scenes may have been lost in the edit involving the Boots character, whom everyone eulogizes in the present-day time frame, but who seems strictly functional and barely registers as a presence in the flashback sequence. Pic was almost entirely shot on locations in South Africa, apart from a few scenes filmed in Blighty, which would explain why the sunlight in the beach scenes looks so dazzling and wholly uncharacteristic of the English seaside.
Home Film Reviews. Apr 18, pm PT. By Leslie Felperin Plus Icon. Flashbacks of a Fool U. Production: A Buena Vista Intl. Rogers U. Executive producers, Steffan Aumueller, Glenn M.
Directed, written by Baillie Walsh. Reviewed at Odeon Norwich, Norwich, U. Running time: MIN. More From Our Brands.
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