All the monochrome Manchester clichés

Rating: 7/10 (16 May 2010)

"Tell me about Macclesfield..." (spoken in sensuous Belgian accent)
A reasonably strong film, this; Corbijn adopting an appropriately gloomy naturalism. For a richer understanding you will also require Paul Morley's side of the story ("Piece by Piece", his 2007 compendium of writings on the band) and a familiarity with the collected works of JG Ballard, Franz Kafka and Werner Herzog. However, this is worth watching all the same - unfolding from the perspectives of Deborah and Ian Curtis, mainly being drawn from Deborah's memoir, "Touching from a Distance" (1995).
There is some sense of the rich cultural terrain of Post Punk Britain; "Radio On" was clearly an influence and the soundtrack includes the Kraftwerk and Eno, to place Joy Division in their rightful context as European forces of nature (and machine). Curtis is portrayed as a self-educated working-class intellect and instinctive European who is constrained by, and yet drawn back to, his Cheshire roots. Perhaps Owen Hatherley is correct when he describes the film as a hagiography of Curtis - it does perhaps fall into the trap of many biopics that make things a bit pat and obvious. His character seems a bit simplified and reduced; perhaps due to the adaptation of a book written from one person's perspective. This is avoided in "Nowhere Boy" (2009), with its portrayal of the flawed young John Lennon; that film also has a more robust sense of the social context than this film.
Riley and Morton give expert, if predictable performances, doing their best with what they are given; as do the bit-part strollers playing the visionaries and jesters of Post Punk Mancunia: Toby Kebbell as Rob Gretton, and Craig Parkinson as Mr Manchester himself, Tony Wilson. Hooky is played as a Neanderthal and Sumner as a sensitive sort, powerless to aid Curtis. Alexandra Maria Lara is competent enough as Curtis' Belgian mistress, perhaps straining for the Euro-ennui of Lisa Kreuzer in "Radio On".
Overall, this has a certain power on first viewing, though a lot of this is due to its careful assimilation of so many cherished post-punk tropes. It is too perfectly crafted to upset any boats - a kind of English Heritage simulacrum of our formerly alternative culture.