• Friday, March 24, 2006

• Country:

  USA

• Language:

  English

• Runtime:

  102 min

2006

Fact-based story about the drug-addled and sordid life of The Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. Unfortunately the story moves so quickly into the sensationalized decadence and drug-induced state of Jones, that the unknowing viewer has to wonder why anyone would care.

There are only a few framing sequences with members of The Stones, particularly Keith Richards, that show they had a great respect for him and tried to bring him back into the band as he drifted away. Mixed into the destruction of Jones is a common builder, Frank Thorogood, who is given the unenviable task of trying to please Jones by rebuilding his estate and to watch him per Jones' manager's instructions.

Thorogood's life is so far removed from all of the sex and drugs that he sees, that he envies and desires the tawdry life as well, but never quite fits in. Unfortunately, at least according to this film and according to a supposed death bed confessional of Thorogood in 1993, it led to Thorogood's murder of Jones in a swimming pool "accident".

Goofs

• Factual errors: Andrew Loog Oldham tries to convince The Rolling Stones to take him on as manager by telling them "I broke The Beatles in America." In truth, Andrew's ties with the Beatles (he worked for their manager Brian Epstein for a spell) ended long before they broke in America. One could argue Andrew's claim was merely a bluff, but being as Andrew became the Rolling Stones' manager in April 1963, ten months before the Beatles broke in America, there was no American breakthrough to even bluff a credit claim for.
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: On Frank's first day at Brian's, he goes to the telephone to make a call, but we hear the sound of dialing before his fingers are actually doing so.
• Anachronisms: A scene dated 1959 shows a Robert Johnson album with his photograph on the cover. This is doubly impossible. No Robert Johnson albums existed anywhere until 1961, and it wasn't until about 1969 that any photograph of him at all had been discovered.

Taglines

• The wild and wicked world of Brian Jones
• Before Jimi and Janis there was Brian. The Original Rolling Stone.

Awards

1. Golden Hitchcock
   Event: Dinard British Film Festival
   Result: Nominated
   Category:
   Recipient(s): Stephen Woolley
2. Empire Award
   Event: Empire Awards, UK
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Newcomer
   Recipient(s): Leo Gregory