Film Review

03 December 2008 05:02 BST

Control

Directed by Anton Corbijn, starring Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Craig Parkinson, running time 121 minutes.

In a nutshell

Honest, compelling, engaging, beautiful, stunning.

What’s it all about

Ian Curtis is a poetic, music-loving dreamer growing up in Macclesfield in the 70s. He casually experiments with drugs and poaches his friend’s girlfriend, Debbie. Caught up in young love's dream, the couple decide to marry when she is just 18 and he 19. Despite being poor, Debbie and Ian are happy in their marriage and decide to have a baby. One evening, Ian meets three struggling musicians, Stephen Morris, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, who tell him they are looking for a singer. Ian joins the band, who call themselves Warsaw. Despite continuing to work at a job centre, Ian pours all his efforts and financial strength into the band and the gigs they play in and around Manchester. After suffering a fit, Ian is diagnosed with epilepsy, for which he is prescribed powerful drugs. As the band become increasingly successful, they re-name themselves Joy Division. After the birth of his child, Natalie, Ian meets a beautiful Belgian Embassy worker named Annick Honore with whom he begins an affair. After gaining the attention of music mogul Tony Wilson, things quickly go from strength to strength for Joy Division and their success spirals out of what Ian feels to be his control.

Who’s in it?

Sam Riley fronted a band himself called 10,000 Things, who were initially compared to Joy Division. Perhaps it was this experience that makes him relate to Curtis so perceptibly. Besides bearing a striking resemblance to Curtis, Riley gives a convincing and moving portrayal through his gentle speech and his pensive darkness. However, it is when Riley is on stage that he is truly mesmerising, seeming to be possessed by the dead singer. One of the most remarkable things about Control is the fact that the actors played the music themselves. Riley's ability to capture Curtis' distinctively haunting voice as well as his frenetic dancing ensures that his performance is unforgettable.

Samantha Morton is also excellent as Curtis' worshipping wife Debbie. Shy enough to be in awe of him in youth and subservient enough not to complain after their marriage, it is Morton's down-to-earth representation of a wife from a small town that prevents the film becoming a biased homage to an idol, rather than a realistic account of a human being.

Also worth a mention is Toby Kebbell, who brings huge amounts of comic relief as the band's plain-speaking, Brit-witty manager Rob Gretton. Kebbell is best known for starring alongside Paddy Considine in the Shane Meadows classic Dead Man’s Shoes, for which he won a most promising newcomer accolade in the British Independent Film awards. In Control, he proves that audiences have a lot more to see of his considerable talent.

As an example

"It's all coming apart." – Ian
"No. It's all coming together. It will go down in history." - Tony Wilson

"The past is now part of my future. The present is well out of hand." – Ian's reflections.

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Control already won a host of prizes at Cannes earlier this year, including Best European Film. It has also been acclaimed at both the Edinburgh and Melbourne International Film Festivals. Musical biopics are often difficult to predict in terms of the Academy panel but Walk the Line proved that they can make a significant impression. However Control is probably more art-house than mainstream cinema.

What the others say

"A handsome, lyrical and moving drama." – The Times

"Believe the hype. This is an extraordinary film." – Q Online

So is it any good

The joyous thing about Control is that, like any good rock biopic, it doesn’t necessitate that the viewer is a fan of Joy Division to find the film profoundly engaging. For those who are already familiar with the band and the tragic life of its iconic front-man, Control will bring out the meaning of every frantic, desperate, isolated note of the music in a completely novel and revelatory manner. But the film also presents an insightful picture into the lives of a working-class couple who married too young and struggled to come to terms with the changes in their lives. In fact it harks back to the Ken Loach era of the 'kitchen sink' drama. Shot in stark black and white, it is firmly rooted in its location. Despite being an avid fan himself (Corbijn directed the music video to the re-release of Atmosphere following Curtis's death), the director's understanding of his subject is so thorough that he does not need to bother with needless complications. Centred around the relationship between a man and a woman, ambition, success and feelings of being trapped and frustrated, Control is as elemental and succinct in its message as the music of Joy Division itself.

9.5/10

Natasha Hegde

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