Control film review

certificate_15

CONTROL

In the 27 years since Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis killed himself on the eve of the band's first US tour, the mystique surrounding the group and its enigmatic frontman has continued to grow. There is a rapidly expanding library of books on Curtis and the group who produced just three albums. There was also the exuberant movie 24 Hour Party People which, in its depiction of the Manchester music scene, included elements of Joy Division's story. Now, ahead of an upcoming documentary on the band, comes Control, the biopic of Curtis' brief life. For hardened fans of the group, Control is an exasperating missed opportunity. For those less familiar with the band, but curious to learn more about why they have become so revered, Control provides little evidence.

Based on Touching From A Distance, Deborah Curtis' book about her husband, Control is more a 1960s kitchen sink drama than it is the study of a musical icon. This evocative approach is augmented by the film's gritty Manchester setting and Martin Huhe's black and white cinematography, which bears all the familiar hallmarks of director Anton Corbijn's sumptuous work. Considering the young couple's marital problems and Ian Curtis' very public affair, Deborah Curtis doesn't share the idolatry view of her husband held by others. Although her vantage point provides all the requisite ingredients for a turbulent domestic story, it sheds little light on the group, their music or the man capable of producing such intense, sophisticated and eloquent lyrics.

All heroes are flawed. It's important to remember that when providing an objective, informed work about them, but to focus so much of Control on Curtis' human frailties and offer little understanding of what it was that made him extraordinary is negligent and irresponsible. In addition to the book that inspired the film, Deborah Curtis is also a producer. That Samantha Morton, who portrays her, was the first name in the end credits says much about whose story this really is. The film's title might equally allude to Deborah Curtis' administration of her husband's legacy.