This flick is starting to hit the US cable movie channels. I had never heard of it. I came away moved and impressed by this Daniel Craig project. "Shake your hair girl with your ponytail. Takes me right back..." OTHER: I found myself getting the female actors mixed up, but that's really my only problem with it. They look alike. The SA location fooled me completely and looked great. A refreshing change from the usual gritty rowhouse environment in which many British movies of this type are set. The film "Wish You Were Here" pushes similar buttons as this flick. Loved Ruth's 1970's wardrobe and the arcade that was apparently the center of life for these teens back in the day.

Loved the director's economy of actors. Most others would have had that arcade FILLED with extras cluttering up the scene. But in a memory, are there any extras?

Hollywood film distributors missed the boat again.

This fine drama had release in October 2008 & disappeared.

The reason for this is that it is a dramatic with little humour & a

tragedy which I feel is the crux of the movie. It is also an old fashioned love story.

Daniel Craig is excellent as a faded almost washed up film star who must go back to his home town after 25 years for a funeral. We do go back & relive certain events in his teen years, that has shaped him as an adult.

Harry Eden is equally excellent, our hero as a 16 year old. There are some delightful scenes of youthful frivolity, (Boys will be boys). He has a sexual relationship with an lightly older woman that is done very well, The sex scenes are very well done & believable,

There is also a song score that fits the mood of the film perfectly & 2 songs are done live.

Baille Walsh wrote & directed this with loving care.

The acting by all is first rate.. Daniel Craig as far as I am concerned fits this role like a glove, Thus is the type role he belongs with, NOT James Bond. I definitely want to see young Mr Eden in another few films.

The movie was filmed in South Africa ,The scenery is fantastic.

See this film,if you are a lover of good drams & excellent acting, by basically unknowns, SOME of the performers WILL be STARS of the future.

Ratings: ***1/2 (out of 4) 92 points (out of 100) IMDb 9 (out of 10)

Films of reflection are too few and often the result of climbing to a summit only to gaze back at the shadows never cast in the greedy race for the top ends i tragedy. FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL suggests, by its title, that the story may be different, that there may be some redemption at the core of an abusive life.

Writer/director Baillie Walsh sets his story in opening frames of intense sexual, drug accompanied debauchery. But as the credits fade, the lead character Joe Scott (Daniel Craig) faces a morning of hung over reality. A wealthy Hollywood star whose lifestyle has hastened his aging, Joe is 'managed' by the stern Ophelia (Eve) who is tiring of Joe's wasted lifestyle. Her warnings, as well as Joe's agent's confrontation that Joe is too old looking for a new screenplay, is compounded by a telephone call that Joe's boyhood friend Boots (Max Deacon) has suddenly died, leaving Joe's old first girlfriend Ruth (Claire Forlani) an early widow. Depressed and drunk Joe walks his beach and reflects on his youth. The 'flashback' tales us to Joe's teenage years (the young Joe is Harry Eden) with Boots as his closest friend and Ruth (Felicity Jones), the girl Joe craves. But hormones rule and Joe is an easy prey for his married next door neighbor: during one of their trysts a tragedy occurs that results in Joe's fleeing home for the 'successful' yet empty life he finds in Hollywood.

At the request of Joe's mother (Olivia Williams) he flies back to England where he is forced to confront the early damage he caused in the lives of his family and friends. Daniel Craig and Harry Eden are excellent in their mirrored roles of the young and the older Joe. In fact there is not a weak member of this fine British cast. Though the story takes place in England the film was shot in South Africa (cinematographer John Mathieson) and the rickety beach houses on the small bay where Boots and Joe spend their time is picturesque and adds the right sense of isolation to the story. At 114 minutes the film goes on a bit too long with areas for editing a bit too obvious. But the overall effect of FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL is a satisfying journey through a memory that holds a light to the incidents of youth that can alter too many lives if not mended. Grady Harp