Joyless revision

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2012)

I'm not greatly into the whole Joy Division / New Order musical trip, finding the music too grim and never forgiving the Nazi-chic of their deliberately chosen band names. Plus I remember at the time reading in the music press of the day the legend "Ian Curtis died for you" and dismissing it as sheer hyperbole. After watching this movie, I still don't believe the latter but do have a better knowledge of the man behind the myth as well as a better appreciation of the band's music.
Unsurprisingly shot in black and white by the celebrated monochromatic rock photographer Anton Corbijn (later associated with his iconic images of Depeche Mode and especially U2), the film is thus rendered bleak and grey, the proper background for the depressed Manchester and Macclesfield locations that were the backdrop to Curtis's life as well, of course as his turbulent life and the group's doomy, powerful music.
The movie eschews the traditional celebration of the rising success of the group to the extent you're hardly aware of their popularity at all. All the way through, Curtis lives in run- down houses and freely moves in everyday locations with hardly admission of his growing celebrity and increasing musical significance. Instead, the film concentrates on his epileptic illness and growing surliness together with his relationships with the two women with whom he had lasting, if difficult relationships, his wife Deborah and his lover, Belgian Embassy attache Annik.
I struggled somewhat with the relentlessly downbeat insight into Curtis's life and at times struggled to see how he could attract the attention of the two women who struggle for his attention. A largely absent and disinterested father and husband he cheats on his wife and yet returns to her, lacking the courage to do the honourable thing and move on to let her live her own life. In the end, his depression at his personal conflict, his debilitating illness, addled by his medication and drinking leads him to his final act of self-destruction and of course the debate as to whether this was a heroic or cowardly act.
If lacking life and drama (and humour) in the story-telling, there's no questioning the power of the band's music and the recreation of Curtis's hood-eyed, "lost control" whiplash dancing style by Sam Riley is spot on. The acting in support was solid, with an empathetic performance by Samantha Moore as the long-suffering wife and in particular, though relegated to the sidelines, the actors paying the individual Joy Division band members, who as well as looking the part, also convincingly recreate their emotive music.
Curtis's story is certainly one worth re-telling given his posthumous elevation to post-punk icon by the music press in the UK in particular. That said, the film didn't exactly move me and never seemed to really get under the skin of its subject, which given the prior knowledge of the inevitable conclusion, lends a slow-motion car-crash perspective to the story's progression.
No film about the artist's life here was ever going to be a joyous and uplifting experience, but Corbijn largely treats his subject with sympathy if little real insight. In the end Curtis remains an elusive subject , which may just have been the point of the film in the first place.