love will tear (this review) apart

Rating: 5/10 (1 February 2008)

This is the movie Joy Division deserves - a mediocre biography of a mediocre band. Nothing personal, but come on. We're not talking about the Stones and the Maysles here. It's Joy Division. Joy Division isn't a big deal. Joy Division isn't the Sex Pistols. Joy Division isn't the Clash. Joy Division isn't even New Order. Joy Division is just Joy Division - a briefly interesting band with a very light catalog, fronted by a guy whose greatest contribution to pop vocals was apathy.
But so what, you say; great art can be made about weak artists. I agree. At least I don't deny it. But by Anton Corbijn? The best that can be said about him is that he's a good photographer and probably a very nice guy. A couple of Depeche Mode videos do not an auteur make.
The casting's great, and the script is okay; but the film-maker's weaknesses, like for instance film-making, vein CONTROL with fissures. Primarily, there is no energy anywhere. The movie looks like it was made while everyone behind the camera, and most of the folks in front of it, were asleep. The concert scenes are among the most stagnant in the film, which is saying a lot. The movie drags all the time, the actors never know what speed to play (often Sam Riley appears to have been the only actor in a scene to receive direction), and ultimately the movie repeats itself for much of its final hour.
So, perhaps I misspoke earlier: Ian Curtis probably deserved better than this. And he got it in 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, which, though it wasn't all that much about Curtis per se, is at least a good movie by a real director.