Half of a virtuoso piece

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2007)

Two years spent salivating on this project. Anton Corbijn directs a biopic about Ian Curtis! Can life get any better? ooh well. It came out as a weird documentary with maximum emphasis on two aspects at opposite end of the spectrum and, unfortunately, some shallowness in the middle.
It's directed by whom I consider the best living photographer; I've been a lifelong fan. And he won't disappoint me about his visual talent: every single scene in CONTROL is visually perfect, pure Corbijn, perfectly balanced black and whites, nearly mathematical composition (a scene of Curtis asleep at his work table made me gasp for its total formal beauty, algebra in black and white).
Beautiful, are they? Imagine two hours of this- - - - - The mind never really gets into the flow of the story (at least, MY mind never did): it was like watching that Corbjin exhibition in Groningen in 2000, where I walked slack-jawed in the museum halls. As much as I love Corbjin's work, I find that his virtuossism here may be distracting if you're a fan.
So, the cinematography is outstanding. The other outstanding thing is the acting by this kid I've never heard, Sam Riley, (born in 1980 bless him), who plays Curtis. At the beginning one is suspectful: the kid is way too cute, one fears that his good looks will be distracting. But you slowly come to respect and admire his performance: he has Curtis nailed down. (We must remember that the movie is based on Curtis' wife's memories, and she may have quite a chip on her shoulder, but the other members of the band AND Tony Wilson are VERY much alive and kicking, so I trust that all the facts are punctual and realistic).
This is, simply, the story of a weak kid who got himself in a situation that was too big for himself, and he didn't know the way out. "When everything was simpler", as he says around the end of the movie, he had hastily married and had a child; he was in a small band and playing gave him pleasure. Then things became too much: he developed epilepsy, the drugs for it were a constant torture and made him drowsy, he fell asleep at work, lost his job; he quickly got tired of his wife and showed no kind of emotional relationship with his little daughter (whom he only looks at with disconcert; she is another cause of his losing control over his own life); a gorgeous Belgian lover quickly became more of a pain than a relief, as he obviously gets discovered by his wife, and he finds himself in the middle of a tug of war between the two women. Worst of all, "he is becoming quite famous now", but he has lost the enjoyment that music gave him, he thinks the public doesn't understand him, one night he actually refuses to go on stage (and when he finally does, the strain of it gives him an epileptic attack). In his view, there is nothing left living for. End of it.
Sam Riley is surprisingly good at conveying Curtis' slow descent into hopelessness. The director sure makes him cry an awful lot, but one fears that Curtis was exactly like this in real life. He was simply a kid, too weak for the kind of life that he could have had and that looms over him like a threat more than a promise - global success, money, a loving wife, a daughter and God knows how many lovers, Belgian or not. Riley's performance is restrained, he never goes over the top, not even towards the end. I suspect that the son of the Calvinist pastor surely would never have allowed him; all the performances are dignified and restrained, even Samantha Morton as the very patient wife (perhaps too normal a wife for him? One gets the feeling they didn't really connect; "she loves to live in Macclesfield", Curtis whines) is not too emotive: this is a very everyday tragedy.
So, the lead actor is good and the cinematography is good. What's left in the middle - the MOVIE itself - is a bit disappointing, more a documentary than a movie. Nobody explains us what was in the young musician's mind, HOW the band, who up to that moment had grown listening to glam rock - as the soundtrack lavishly proves - came out with such a different, restrained sound; the band gets more and more famous but we have no perception of that if not by some awkward dialogue ("boys, we're getting bigger! We're going to America!"), so the audience can't really feel what influence fame had on Curtis. Luckily there are no big musical moments, just snippets: after all this is not a movie about Joy Division, it's a movie about the strange, depressing and depressed boy who fronted it.
Is it worth seeing? Oh yes, everyone will go. Non-Corbijn fans will have a better time than I did, because they will see the movie, not the cinematography. Would I buy the DVD and keep it forever? No. 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE is more effective in describing Curtis' short life with some emotion - and that was a *comedy*.