{ never looks down if he goes. }

[delga]

I recently watched Flashbacks of a Fool which is supposed to be a coming of age story told in, well, a flashback, but doesn't really hit those buttons. The performances are great, and the story tootles along at a pretty even pace until you hit the climax at which point you feel pretty underwhelmed. There's a great sequence featuring the music of the era which is pretty much the pinnacle of the film (or the driving force at its centre - the part that vaguely ties the rest of it together) and then there's the closing sequence, but the rest of the film sort of loses you because it's all rather aimless.

The thing is, it's been on my mind ever since I watched it. I only really knew about it because Claire Forlani stars in it, and she makes her appearance in the last fifteen minutes of the film, alongside Keeley Hawes. It's a really strange piece because the film is supposed to be about how Daniel Craig's boyhood bff's death leads him to remember why he left his childhood home but the whole film is driven by women - there are very few memorable male characters other than the protagonist and the mostly-absent Boots (the one who dies). Instead Joe Scott lives with his mother and his sister, and with another woman (the connection between Helen McCrory's chcracter and Joe's mother is never really explained) and his life shoots between an inadvisable affair with Evelyn Adams, a sweet affection for Ruth Davies, his matriarchal home and his friendship group (which actually paints him as a little bit of an outsider). Even as an adult Joe Scott is falling apart, and his only real constant is Ophelia Franklin (played by Eve) who is his PA/house assistant/badass of a dogsbody.

Except this isn't something that's ever addressed in the film. The implicit questions are: where are the men? Where is Joe's father? The fathers/husbands that do exist have little-to-no screentime. It makes for a war-time atmosphere, in a strange way.

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My favourite part of the film is the very end when Joe returns to America. Claire Forlani is not the best of actresses (Keeley Hawes consistently shows far more range) but considering she only has a couple of scenes, she's amazing as the grown Ruth Davies. I've watched that part of the clip (with Hawes and Forlani) over and over again. It's so striking, and so moving, and it sort of makes the rest of the film (or rather, the missing climax) worthwhile.

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Long story short: I'm trying to write drabbles for movie_100 just to keep up some momentum and my brain is being taken over by this film and that scene, and just the quietness of it all.