Review of Control (2007) by Jonathan A — 02 Mar 2009

I've wanted to watch this for a while now and was lucky enough to see it just before our Sky Movies got cancelled!

I have been a fan of Joy Division for a while, but admittedly don't know much about them, nowhere near as much as my friend Mr Alex Hales does anyway. My main fascination has always been with 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', one song, and one that I consider to be one of the greatest of all time. The lyrics, the reasoning behind them, and Ian Curtis himself have always fascinated me.

I went into this film wondering how Curtis would be portrayed. He was epileptic and a depressive, but also an adulterer. And, for good or bad, he is not really shown in a positive or negative way, more in a factual way (which is good in a biography).

The movie can be quite boring at times, maybe on purpose to reflect the greyness of English working class life, particularly in Macclesfield, the movie is even shot in black and white. This helps you understand the background more. But you get the feeling that either too much has been left out, or there wasn't enough to put in in the first place.

I was glad to see some of Curtis' writing get attention as well as his moods which I could relate a lot to, one of the reasons he is a partial hero to me. But there is no real explantion for the treatment of his wife, you almost feel as if he deserves the suffering he puts himself through for his actions.

The best performance is probably from Samantha Morton as his young, meek wife who inevitably finds herself playing second fiddle to a Belgian journalist.

I'm not sure how accurate it is, but the rest of the band don't seem to care much at all about his affair or physical and mental problems. I don't really like the portrayal of Tony Wilson either, preferring Steve Coogan's take on him in 24 Hour Party People, but whichever one is more accurate is open to interpretation.

Amidst all the gloom there are a couple of funny moments, my favourite being a great little piece of acting by someone with Down's Syndrome I believe, involved in a little skit with Curtis at the job office. The guy from RockNRolla (name forgotten) puts in a good performance as the band's manager too.

I liked the film but did go away feeling that there could have been more to tell, but this was mainly focused on Curtis, as 24 Hour Party People was focused on Wilson and the Manchester music scene as a whole in the 70s-90s.

You don't really find out too much more about Joy Division (or New Order) apart from what a fan would already know or what you could find on Wikipedia.

As a biography and a film it does include most of the facts (including the myth that Wilson signed a contract in his own blood) and is quite well acted, but not as great as I thought it would be.