This review contains spoilers.
Daniel Craig was peak Bond in 2008. Still warm on the success of Casino Royale (which is a fucking banger of a film) he did the slightly shit Quantum of Solace, and around the same time, this got released.
I’ve only just seen it, having wanted to watch it for a while. I really like reflection and redemption stories, and this is..difficult. The film does that frustrating thing of somehow being less than the sum of its parts.
Craig, still in peak physical form from his Bond role, plays Joseph Scot. We meet Joseph in the midst of a cocaine and booze-fueled shagging fest with what is implied are working girls. “Where did it all go wrong” in the fashion of George Best. There’s a touching scene with his assistant Ophelia played with much charm by Eve – easily the most likable character of the film – and we’re straight into the setup. Firstly, Ophelia wants out:
When I show up here,
I never know what to expect.
Whether you’ve eaten mushrooms
or acid or coke or all of the above.
Joseph, for all his apparent vices, is actually pretty likable. He clearly likes, even loves Ophelia, and seems to want an authentic connection to people, but boy is he in the wrong town for that. Every relationship is transactional, except Ophelia but his approach to her unmet expectations is to solve it with more money, which is a big part of Joseph’s problem. He can buy anything but self-awareness.
Scot, we are shown, is past it. addicted to drugs, girls, booze “It’s cocktail hour somewhere” he says in a falsetto as he mixes a drink first thing in the morning, in front of a frowning Ophelia. This is someone on the drop. He’s vain, selfish, and needy. An actor in Hollywood, in other words. Scot gets word a childhood friend has died, and is obviously moved but it is implied he’s not expected to make the funeral because he’s probably busy (subtext: He’s a flakey shithead) and then he goes out for lunch.
A word on the cinematography; the first third of the film is beautiful. I really thought it was Malibu CA (it’s supposed to be) but it is in fact Cape Town in South Africa. Once I knew this it caused me some issues because it is also meant to double as the South Coast of England which if you know either country is kind of a stretch.
Scot has lunch with his agent, the ever-brilliant and perpetually intense Mark Strong, where he learns he’s not getting pitched for a film, but fired for Hollywood’s original sin: Age, and the much less punished sin of being a fuckup. The film, after a running joke about a dog, takes a turn into the titular flashback, and this is where it starts to wobble. The world of the first act is very well drawn, the characters work, and it’s a good skewering of the unhappily rich and famous – who doesn’t love that?
The shift to 1970s England feels jarring, not least because we lose Craig and all the others. It feels like two films and never quite worked for me. The point of it is to tell us all about Joe’s friendship with the departed, and it’s all very competent but never really grabbed me. Scot’s neighbour (Jodhi May) is a bored young mother and clearly has a lustful eye on the teenage Joseph.
The biggest problem is we don’t really see much of what made present-day Joseph; the younger version is a fairly typical confused teenager that gets taken advantage of; he’s neither abnormally selfish or unusual, just a typical good-looking young lad. Older Joe is a lot more interesting.
There’s a love triangle with his friend Ruth (Felicity Jones) who is established as the town’s most eligible chill girl, and Boots (Max Deacon). Joseph lets Ruth down by finally giving into Evelyn’s advances (well aware of the game she is playing), with eventually explosive consequences.
There’s much to like in this part of the story. The excellent Olivia Williams plays Scot’s mother, and Miriam Karlin gives a solid turn as Mrs Rodgers, who sees everything before it unfolds, as only the elderly can. Evelyn’s a believable portrayal of an attractive young woman who is unhappy with settling, and thinks adultery with her neighbor’s son will do something for her (there is a definite parallel between Evelyn and adult Joseph), and Boots and Joseph have a convincing enough dynamic.
What really did not land is this hazy summer of fishing, Roxy Music and illicit sex is supposed to be pivotal to present day Joseph, but it feels disconnected. His later life is his responsibility, but in this chapter he’s arguably a victim of a predatory woman, adolescent impulse, and plain bad luck. It’s not explained how and why this cast such a big shadow. Why did he leave and not look back? There is something of answer to this (the trauma of the tragedy) but the story never unpacks it.
If the 2nd act is weaker than the first, the 3rd is very flat. Back to present day, there’s no particular resolution. Joe already knows he’s a bit of a shit, decides to help out Ruth (who we learn went onto marry Boots after Joe left them all behind) and that’s it.
I liked the film in spite of itself. It so nearly does something really decent, but just flatlines. There’s gold in the individual parts, which really are very good. I wanted to see a lot more of Joseph and Olivia, if he sorts any of it out, but you get left hanging. Is that the script’s failing, or mine?
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