Back to Black is the latest biopic to grace the silver screen. Following Amy Winehouse’s life, the film is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, starring Marisa Abela in her playing the melodramatic icon.
The reception for this production has been more than mixed, so going into watching without expectations was difficult.
Off the bat, there were mixed feelings. Beyond personally enjoying the moments of the music, the setting and the demise of her toxic relationship were well captured.
For Abela, being offered this opportunity so early into her acting career meant you could not blame her for taking it up. However, the shoes she had to fill remain too big for her to fill, as her performance feels anything but natural.
Amy Winehouse’s personality was known to be sparky, enigmatic and verging on brash.
It is indisputable that there were times when it could be forgotten that Abela was playing Winehouse. Her performance is at its best in the moments between her and her nan Cynthia (Lesley Manville), but during any scenes involving singing, it felt forced and seemed to be causing her discomfort.
One consistent theme that was greatly appreciated was the weaving of her music, which was so deeply connected to the events of her life. Singing about her boyfriends, her battle with addiction, and the trivial tale of her management trying to send her to rehab, it felt familiar and nostalgic of the early 2000s, when her jazz tracks ruled the charts as she swept the Brits and the Grammys.
Starting out in the early days when Winehouse’s life was just lyrics, family and the fairy lights of her bedroom, we are placed inside the intensity of her rise to stardom. The thrill of meeting her partner, Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell), over a pool table in a Camden pub.
A major pillar throughout the film is the couple’s obsessive love and dangerous co-dependence. O’Connell’s performance deserves credit, as he embodies Blake’s nature around drugs and adaptation to her success through jealous overtones that trickle into control and entrapment.
On the other hand, the portrayal of Winehouse’s father, Mitch (Eddie Marsan), lacks. It felt like he was in the room, and the production was trying their best to avoid offending him. Mitch Winehouse stood by Amy throughout her career, guiding her choices and creative decisions and pushing her to climb the rungs of fame. It showed their loving father-daughter relationship but left out some of the harsher realities their dynamic brought throughout her career. The Asif Kapadia documentary Amy better represented the nuance of that.
The story is inevitably harrowing and tragic. Some reviews have centred their opinions around the exploitation of her suffering. The film emphasised the point that Amy didn’t want the fame or wealth that came with her success and that making music was really the only thing she knew how to do.
She was also family-oriented and leant on the people close to her, like her nan. Having their relationship delved into more was a nice touch, and it highlighted how inspired Amy was by her grandparent’s existence including her hairstyles, leopard print and love for Tony Bennett.
Her existence was always going to be hard to get right. The rawness and authenticity of her personality are almost impossible to emulate, and putting that into a film so soon after her death was always going to face scrutiny.
