The fool in question is Daniel Craig’s washed-up Hollywood star. Joe Scot wears concealer, drinks heavily and can’t survive in his Malibu mansion without frequent visits from drug-dealer Sister Jean (Emilia Fox) and the acid attentions of his black housekeeper (hip-hop artist Eve).

We see Craig at the beginning and end of the film, while Harry Eden plays the star as a young man in an English seaside town of the early Seventies where a married woman (Jodhi May) gives him his first sexual experience and a tragedy occurs which eventually causes him to leave home.

Written and directed by Baillie Walsh, who made the excellent Mirror, Mirror — Imitation of Life about a transvestite prostitute living with Aids, this is polished, has a better than average screenplay and largely convincing acting, especially from Craig and Eden.

What isn’t quite so certain is its last act, which has the star coming home for the funeral of his best friend and somehow finding enough equilibrium to start his life afresh.

No one can surely deny that Craig is an actor well capable of dealing with intricacies beyond those of 007 and he proves it here again, unstinting in his portrayal of a man on the skids who has almost lost the will to do anything about it. Eden is definitely a find, though frequent television appearances may have proved that before.

But well as the whole cast play, and there are very good performances from Miriam Karlin as an old crone and Claire Forlani as the widow of his best friend, there is something lacking at the centre of a film that would churn the emotions effectively.

What the missing link is I’m not sure but it may be more than just the rather facile feelgood ending. Apart from that caveat, the film is as good to look at as it is to listen to.