The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

It was pretty much a guarantee that a movie would be made about Amy Winehouse’s life when she sadly died in 2011, with the only surprise perhaps being that it’s taken as long as it has for a biopic to come out (noting there have been a couple of documentaries – most notably the excellent ‘Amy’ from Asif Kapadia). ‘Back to Black’, named after her second album and arguably her most famous song, is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, and it tells the story of Amy’s life from pre-fame through the turbulence of her life to her tragic death from alcohol poisoning aged only 27.

‘Back to Black’ has proven controversial, with criticism (pre-release) aimed at the likeness (or lack of)  in both looks and voice of lead actress Marisa Abela, as well as a perception that the film may sugarcoat the circumstances of her life that contributed to her death. In the case of Abela those doubts are unfounded, at least from my perspective. I thought her performance was excellent and she manages to convey the essence of the person Amy Winehouse was, while there are strong supporting performances from Lesley Manville, Jack O’Connell and Eddie Marsan as the three key individuals in her short life. Granted, I expect bigger fans of Winehouse may apply more scrutiny to Abela’s portrayal than I have.

I can understand the other criticism more and the issue for me comes down to authenticity, particularly in the portrayals of her toxic ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil and to a lesser extent, her father Mitch Winehouse. Fielder-Civil, as portrayed by Jack O’Connell, is shown as a cheeky jack the lad type and ‘Back to Black’ seems unwilling to pass any judgement on him, with a curious focus on the paparazzi instead (not saying they aren’t awful, but they were far down the list of those who contributed to her addictions and subsequent death). For anyone who has seen Asif Kapadia’s ‘Amy’ (as referenced above), you will have a more potent viewpoint into the relationships she had, instead of the doomed love story ‘Back to Black’ seems to be going for.

I also felt the movie wasn’t paced particularly well, with the timeline a little fuzzy and some important moments in her career (namely her breakthrough first album) being skipped past to get to the tragedy. To a degree, it struck me as an attempt to depict the tragedy of her life but less so the talent, with both aspects vital components in her story. That said, I do think the movie is earnestly made and there is a genuine desire to do justice to Amy Winehouse’s story, but in playing it a little safe, not judging certain individuals, and not digging too deeply, it ends up doing her a disservice, and that prevents ‘Back to Black’ from being as good a movie as it could have been.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Sam Taylor-Johnson

Starring: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt21261712/