Unremittingly Bleak Biopic

Rating: 4/10 (16 November 2008)

As an offering for the converted ,this is a fine piece of work, beautifully filmed by Director, and devotee Anton Corbijn. As a stand alone offering it is fatally flawed.Ian Curtis is not a great artist or singer.Joy Division were not a great band.They did not have a great song list, had one popular hit, and a minor repertoire of cult classics. Nor were they a great live band.As the years have progressed their "legendary" status has grown, but time has not been kind to them. The films "raison d'etre", therefore, starts shakily.
Despite these reservations the film did have a chance.Pop stars who die young always have a fascination for what "might have been",and Curtis's story does have the potential for an Everyman tale, but it does not succeed.New Order, the phoenix incarnation of Joy Division were far more successful artistically, critically and popular after Curtis's death.There has been little posthumous positive re evaluation of the Curtis period. It was raw, the ingredients were there for a successful band, and they subsequently made it big. And that is about it.So this is no "Doors" or "Thin Lizzy" tale.Instead, it is a bit boring and unremarkable.
Sam Riley provides a convincing performance as Curtis, the black and white photography is atmospheric and strangely lush, the contemporary soundtrack and Joy Division music authentic.Yet it is a soul less film. Written by his widow Deborah, we never really understand what is inspiring this tortured being. Sadly, suicidal individuals rarely bare their soul to the world, and I suspect that Deborah simply doesn't know. Inevitably her treatment of Ian's Mistress, Annik, is circumspect.Visually attractive (played by Alexandra Maria Lara)her characterisation is wafer thin, offering little insight into the attraction, or relationship.
Joy Division and Curtis mythology centre around the "tortured young man" image of the lead singer. This is faithfully represented. Yet young men in bands invariably enjoy themselves too, any "joie de vivre" is notably absent robbing the script of light and shade.In order to emotionally feel the lows, you need to have been lifted a bit as well. Here we start low, and get lower.
Corbijn is superb at capturing a verite sense of moment and time.Deborah Curtis offers a convincing sense of narrative.But ultimately the subject material is not strong enough to carry a 117 minute running time for the casual or uninformed observer.As an homage for the die hard fan it will no doubt be essential.For the rest, it proves to be inconsequential.