Flashbacks Of A Fool opens with a scene Ian Fleming would have loved to have seen in a Bond film, Daniel Craig providing the meat in a supermodel sandwich.

Cavorting in a king-size bed with Scarface levels of coke on display, “difficult” movie star Joe Scott (Craig) looks like he’s in double-0 heaven.

Credit then to Baillie Walsh’s cool, detached direction, which makes Joe’s lifestyle - palatial beach-front mansion, three-in-a-bed romps, more money than God - actually look empty and unfulfilling.

As scripwriter, Walsh has also concocted an interesting enough story to carry his vintage Nic Roeg feeling visuals.

Burnt-out, permanently stoned, very publicly fired by his agent, and distraught at the death of Boots, his best school-buddy, a drunken Joe takes to the ocean to escape his woes.

Flashback to 1972, and the teenage Joe (Eden) is living with his mum (Williams) and sister in a seaside town.

Hanging out with Boots (Max Deacon), Joe also discovers love in the shape of Bowie and Bryan Ferry fan Ruth (Felicity Jones) and frustrated housewife Evelyn (Jodhi May).

But, as passions rise, mistakes and a tragic event will change everyone’s lives forever.

Walsh’s old mucker Daniel Craig is the reason why Flashbacks Of A Fool found funding. But the writer/director has given the “best Bond since Connery” a character to relish in the form of the self-loathing, but witty and acid-tongued actor.

The 1970s segment – eye-shadow, glam rock, cheap arcades and free love – is nothing new but warmly recreated, and the catastrophe is a ballsy shocker.

When the record stops spinning Flashbacks Of A Fool doesn’t amount to much more than “learn from past mistakes and don’t take your life for granted”, but it’s strikingly shot, perfectly played, and rather well scored.

And like Connery, Craig looks set for a long and varied career once he’s done with saving the world.

Rob Daniel