This is a story of two people, not ten, as you might assume from the poster, which suggests a bio-pic of the Rolling Stones and their various rock-chicks. We are actually looking at the last few weeks of Brian Jones, the group's genuinely brilliant creator, whose colleagues had just fired him on the grounds that he was no longer fit to create anything, after plunging too deep into the debauchery of the 60's music scene. He would soon be found drowned in his pool, possibly at the hands of an unpaid builder, Frank Thorogood, resentful at living so near yet so far from the pop-star life.
The murder theory is far from proved, and even then there is an alternative suspect in the Stones' chauffeur and minder Tom Keylock, who plays a menacing role in this film, while others claim that the asthmatic Jones had simply gone swimming while stoned out of his mind.
It is the relationship between Jones and Thorogood that drives this story - the glamorous celebrity and the humble tradesman, dazzled and disoriented by the young groupies casually brushing past him with their mini-skirted thighs.
To Thorogood, Jones is generous with his drugs and his girls ("Haven't you ever heard of free love?"), but relentlessly tight with money. He was in fact a small, narrow, mean character, as shown by the offhand way he ordered his first girlfriend to abort their baby. But by now he is overtaken by debt, having failed to deliver good songs for some time. And Thorogood's men are wanting their wages rather badly...
Those of us with vivid memories of the 60's will pick up some too-obvious images of people smoking cigarettes in a theatrical way, so you don't miss the point, and a poster of the Black and White Minstrels, long since branded as non-PC. Also Thorogood's wife commenting on his new trendy long hairstyle. And a few contemporary song-hits (sung in cover-versions only).
The scenes of drug-taking do not really touch a nerve among us non-druggies, and as for the free love, there is some weird camera direction, especially at a climactic point where one of the girls seems to be resisting group-sex, while a male voice shouts "Experiment with me!". The nature of the experiment remains obscure.
Meanwhile the swimming pool is featured almost like a character in the story. Jones and Thorogood are seen lounging and drinking beside it. When it's empty, they even make a recording down there, with echo effects. And there is a ghostly reappearance of Jones, thanking Keylock (but not Thorogood, you notice) for making him a martyr. "If it wasn't for you, I'd still be alive and no one would care." For Jones had earned immortality as founder member of the 27 Club, commemorating rock-stars who die at that age, for which there is (supposedly) a statistical spike.
As one of the rock-chicks remarks, showing an unexpected shaft of profundity, "Stonesville. A very strange place."
The murder theory is far from proved, and even then there is an alternative suspect in the Stones' chauffeur and minder Tom Keylock, who plays a menacing role in this film, while others claim that the asthmatic Jones had simply gone swimming while stoned out of his mind.
It is the relationship between Jones and Thorogood that drives this story - the glamorous celebrity and the humble tradesman, dazzled and disoriented by the young groupies casually brushing past him with their mini-skirted thighs.
To Thorogood, Jones is generous with his drugs and his girls ("Haven't you ever heard of free love?"), but relentlessly tight with money. He was in fact a small, narrow, mean character, as shown by the offhand way he ordered his first girlfriend to abort their baby. But by now he is overtaken by debt, having failed to deliver good songs for some time. And Thorogood's men are wanting their wages rather badly...
Those of us with vivid memories of the 60's will pick up some too-obvious images of people smoking cigarettes in a theatrical way, so you don't miss the point, and a poster of the Black and White Minstrels, long since branded as non-PC. Also Thorogood's wife commenting on his new trendy long hairstyle. And a few contemporary song-hits (sung in cover-versions only).
The scenes of drug-taking do not really touch a nerve among us non-druggies, and as for the free love, there is some weird camera direction, especially at a climactic point where one of the girls seems to be resisting group-sex, while a male voice shouts "Experiment with me!". The nature of the experiment remains obscure.
Meanwhile the swimming pool is featured almost like a character in the story. Jones and Thorogood are seen lounging and drinking beside it. When it's empty, they even make a recording down there, with echo effects. And there is a ghostly reappearance of Jones, thanking Keylock (but not Thorogood, you notice) for making him a martyr. "If it wasn't for you, I'd still be alive and no one would care." For Jones had earned immortality as founder member of the 27 Club, commemorating rock-stars who die at that age, for which there is (supposedly) a statistical spike.
As one of the rock-chicks remarks, showing an unexpected shaft of profundity, "Stonesville. A very strange place."