Yet another music biopic, this time about the troubled singer Amy Winehouse (Marisa Abela). It concentrates on her rise to stardom and her tumultuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil that inspired her to write her most famous album, Back to Black.
At times this felt similar to the other successful movie from this year about a singer who died tragically young, Bob Marley: One Love. A lot of the rough edges are erased, such as her heroin addiction, and we are meant to revel in the singer’s talent. Unfortunately, Back to Black does not work as well.
Winehouse comes across as quite a pathetic figure. We see her twice declare that she “aint no Spice Girl” and list the iconic female singers who she thinks demonstrated girl power. But she also appears to define herself by the man she is having a relationship with, Blake Fielder Civil (Jack O’Connell).
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s direction is very flat but the main problems are with Matt Greenhalgh’s screenplay. There a few really clunky moments. Early on, after a row with her record label who want a new album, she asserts that she cannot just knock out some songs, she needs to live life first. Then she storms off, goes in a pub and meets Civil. There is even a scene of Winehouse telling her Dad (Eddie Marsan) that she is not going to rehab!
The performances do rescue things a bit. Abela does well with the material provided, and Lesley Manville is outstanding as her gran. Eddie Marsan can only be excellent, but his part is written as a well meaning, naive bumbler rather than the controlling bully than he really was.
Rating: 4 out of 10