Not Coming to a Theater Near You
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
The day I sat down to watch Control, the Guardian’s film critics named it Best Film of 2007. I’d read a fair amount about the film- British newspapers tend to bang on at length about any homegrown film which has a chance of achieving international acclaim- and my expectations had been raised by Cannes successes and talk of Oscar nominations. And perhaps this was the problem- I expected something more than the usual rags to not-quite-riches rock biopic, I expected insight, grim revelation, the laying bare of a broken soul.
But the fact is, Control is unremittingly, depressingly quite good. The performances are solid, the writing strong and occasionally witty, the photography gorgeous, the music memorable. But the characters are thin, and the story bleak and predictable (and it is possible to tell a familiar true story without being predictable, just watch I’m Not There). The entire film is incredibly dry, lacking any spark of invention. It’s also in complete thrall to the myth of the tortured artist, resulting in a hagiography in which even the obvious criticisms of Curtis as a husband and a father are just inevitable side effects of his boundless creativity. The 20-or-so minute Joy Division segment of 24 Hour Party People says far more about these characters than Control can manage in 100, and after a while it simply becomes hard to care.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
20 Dec 2007 9:11 AM | Submit Comment
