Flashbacks flounders in the final third.

Whiile pic doesn't exactly feel like a vanity project, its weak script might have kept it forever in development hell if debutant writer-helmer Baillie Walsh weren't the topliner's good buddy.

The bizarre secret isn't nearly interesting enough to justify the long buildup to it, and since it amounts to bad luck it doesn't really reveal anything about the actor, anyway.

If you go into this viewing knowing what the story gets right, it’s easy to appreciate the English quaint and harrowing lessons.