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Anton Corbjin's film about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis who killed himself at the age of 23 in 1980 after a brief but brilliant career in the music industry.
Gorgeous cinematography, good acting especially from the supporting cast. The first part had a wonderful lightness of touch and humour, the band's manager in particular was hilarious and Tony Wilson was spot on, although this did conjure up shades of 24 Hour Party People at times. And, of course, a great soundtrack.
But the film suffers from two fatal flaws.
First, the typical problem of making a biopic of an unpleasant or annoying person is that the film is also going to be unpleasant or annoying. With a colourful anti-hero this might not be the case, but Curtis in this film comes across as weak, moody and utterly selfish. By the point that he says to Wilson that everybody hates him, I found myself thinking that yes, I hated him a little bit, too.
Second, perhaps inevitable considering it was adapted from a book by Curtis' long suffering wife called 'Touching From a Distance', it was a bit distant. Curtis himself was a bit of a blank. Perhaps this was a problem with the performance. Sam Riley does not look or sing all that much like Ian Curtis, and despite being the main character, doesn’t do much but stare moodily into the distance, which is arty but not particularly illuminating. Not until near the end did we hear anything much from his perspective, so it was difficult to really get any kind of grasp of the inner turmoil that would drive him to suicide. This made it difficult to sympathise much with him, or to engage with the film on a closer level.
In the end it was not so much tragic as just grubbily sad...although with the choice of shooting in black and white, perhaps the evocation of 50's kitchen sink dramas about people who marry too young is deliberate. I felt sad that this film made me lose some respect for Curtis whose music I have always admired, but based as it was on facts, this can hardly be held against it.
Still trying to decide whether I liked this, so no decisive rating as yet.
Anton Corbjin's film about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis who killed himself at the age of 23 in 1980 after a brief but brilliant career in the music industry.
Gorgeous cinematography, good acting especially from the supporting cast. The first part had a wonderful lightness of touch and humour, the band's manager in particular was hilarious and Tony Wilson was spot on, although this did conjure up shades of 24 Hour Party People at times. And, of course, a great soundtrack.
But the film suffers from two fatal flaws.
First, the typical problem of making a biopic of an unpleasant or annoying person is that the film is also going to be unpleasant or annoying. With a colourful anti-hero this might not be the case, but Curtis in this film comes across as weak, moody and utterly selfish. By the point that he says to Wilson that everybody hates him, I found myself thinking that yes, I hated him a little bit, too.
Second, perhaps inevitable considering it was adapted from a book by Curtis' long suffering wife called 'Touching From a Distance', it was a bit distant. Curtis himself was a bit of a blank. Perhaps this was a problem with the performance. Sam Riley does not look or sing all that much like Ian Curtis, and despite being the main character, doesn’t do much but stare moodily into the distance, which is arty but not particularly illuminating. Not until near the end did we hear anything much from his perspective, so it was difficult to really get any kind of grasp of the inner turmoil that would drive him to suicide. This made it difficult to sympathise much with him, or to engage with the film on a closer level.
In the end it was not so much tragic as just grubbily sad...although with the choice of shooting in black and white, perhaps the evocation of 50's kitchen sink dramas about people who marry too young is deliberate. I felt sad that this film made me lose some respect for Curtis whose music I have always admired, but based as it was on facts, this can hardly be held against it.
Still trying to decide whether I liked this, so no decisive rating as yet.