Portrait of the artist as a confused boy

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2010)

Anton Corbijn's film 'Control', about the death of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, challenges some of rock and roll's most enduring myths. Before Curtis was famous, he went down the employment office, not to sign on, but to work he went down the employment office, not to sign on, but to work; he got married as a boy and when he subsequently took advantage of his growing fame to attract an additional admirer, the consequent moral strain drove him to despair; and the drugs associated with his suicide were anti-epileptics. After his death, Joy Division became New Order, and famously owned a nightclub; but according to Corbijn, Curtis' life was resolutely homespun. As a tender portrait of what it's really like for a young band starting out, the film works well, and Sam Riley is great as Curtis. But some of the film's choices are less clearly correct, such as the portrayal of Curtis' birthplace of Macclesfield as the archetypal grim north, or the casting Samantha Morton as his wife; whatever her skills as an actress, she's too old for the part, and she strains too hard to convey girlishness in an apparent attempt to compensate. I'm also not sure why the film is shot in black and white. But it's certainly much more real than '24 Hour Party People', another movie about the same time and place.