Better than expected (but my expectations were low): Back to Black reviewed

When the trailer for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic of Amy Winehouse, Back to Black, first landed, her fans were gracious. ‘This,’ they said, ‘is going to be terrific.’ I’m winding you up. They were horrified. It’s too soon, they said. It’s exploitative and trashes her legacy, they concluded, from having watched two minutes of footage. I can only say that, one, fanatical fans are like that whatever you do, and two, this is better than I expected (although my expectations were low). It does seem softened at the edges, and one can never forgive a falling-in-love montage set at London Zoo – ever – but
I (mostly) didn’t cringe and it is respectful, if painful.

Amy died at 27 (of alcohol poisoning) so there is no ‘comeback’ third act. She barely had a second act and most of that is the ‘downward spiral’ which is always horrible to witness. (Please don’t show her vomiting over a toilet bowl… nope, too late.) However, I can’t think of a single music biopic that avoids all that apart from, perhaps, The Sound of Music but that has a controlling father, so you can’t have everything.

The film stars Marisa Abela as Amy. She doesn’t lip-sync. Instead, she learned how to vocalise like her and, to my ear, the sound – that sound, the one that was always astonishing when it came out of her (gobby) mouth – is a decent approximation. To be clear: I definitely like Amy Winehouse but have never laid flowers outside her Camden house, so others may tear apart this bit of the performance. Otherwise, Abela, who was magnificent in HBO’s Industry, is magnificent here, capturing an Amy who is strong and fragile, needy and tough, charismatic and defiant.