Back to Black: Film Review
I should start by declaring that I have morally objected to the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black from the beginning because it feels too soon after the singer died in 2011. With that out of the way, onto the review.
As these biopics usually go, Back to Black charts the rise and fall of the Rehab singer (played by Marisa Abela), her tumultuous marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell), her battle with alcoholism and drug addiction and the press and paparazzi intrusion into her life.
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson has said in interviews that she wanted Back to Black to celebrate Winehouse’s musical legacy. I don’t think the film achieves that. Winehouse’s music career is sidelined in favour of her personal troubles; the creation of her albums Frank and Back to Black happen mostly off-screen; we don’t get a true sense of her rise in popularity, and some of her famous songs are missing (You Know I’m No Good is a glaring omission).
I also had serious issues with the narrative. The script is as subtle as a sledgehammer and reduces her to a thin character who desperately wants kids with Fielder-Civil and copes with her loneliness with drink and drugs. It totally ignores the fact that she was in a relationship with director Reg Traviss when she died. Also, she was no saint but it’s not fair that she comes off worse than Fielder-Civil and her father Mitch Winehouse (Eddie Marsan). They get off lightly in this forgiving story.
I know there are time constraints and the film can’t cover everything but it sanitises and glosses over some moments, perhaps because they didn’t want to dwell on the tragedy. It’s quite uncomfortable at times, particularly when she’s out of her face and being hounded by paparazzi, and I’m glad it didn’t go as bleak as it could have. I appreciate that the filmmakers didn’t want to focus too much on her violent marriage and drug use, but only a couple of examples are shown to illustrate these. Winehouse goes from being against hard drugs one minute to smoking crack the next with little explanation as to how she got there.
The best thing about the film is Abela. She has been heavily criticised online for not looking or sounding exactly like Winehouse but she actually does a great job. Sure, she might not be spot-on, but she’s close enough for me to suspend my disbelief, something I’ve done many times before with biopics. I was particularly impressed with her vocals – that’s her singing, not lip-syncing to a recording, and she didn’t sound far off the real thing. She took on the almost impossible task of playing a well-known icon and came out of it well – that’s an achievement.
I must almost praise the hair, make-up and costume teams for their detailed recreations of Winehouse’s signature hair, tattoos and idiosyncratic style as well as her physical deterioration due to substance abuse. I actually remember some of these looks from paparazzi photos.
Back to Black isn’t a total trainwreck – I enjoyed parts of it – but it doesn’t treat Winehouse with as much reverence as it thinks it does. I would urge you to watch the 2015 Asif Kapadia documentary Amy instead.
In cinemas on Friday 12th April