Film Review: Control

Liverpool Daily Post

Control, (Cert. 15, 121 mins)
Stars: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Craig Parkinson, Joe Anderson, Nigel Harris, Nicola Harrison
Directed by Anton Corbijn

DURING his lifetime, Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, never achieved the success he and the band richly deserved.

Diagnosed with epilepsy and crippled by depression, he took his own life in the early hours of May 18, 1980, at the age of 23. His young wife, Huyton-born Deborah Woodruff, discovered his body hanging in the kitchen.

The following month, Love Will Tear Us Apart debuted in the UK charts; a heartfelt lament which laid bare the couple’s strained marriage.

While the remaining band members reformed as New Order, the legacy of Curtis and Joy Division remains.

Anton Corbijn makes his feature film directorial debut with this devastating portrait of a tormented soul, based on Deborah’s memoir, Touching From A Distance. Shot in monochrome, it offers a sympathetic though not rose-tinted account of Curtis’s rise and tragic fall.

Elegantly scripted by Matt Greenhalgh, Control is a harrowing journey into the soul of a man wrestling with fame, guilt and the strain of his epilepsy.

Sam Riley is mesmerising in the lead role, leaving us in no doubt of the iconic post-punk singer’s internal suffering that drives him to make the ultimate sacrifice, while Samantha Morton is stunning as his cuckolded wife who initiates divorce proceedings after his first suicide attempt.

Corbijn’s direction is assured throughout, filming the closing scenes with sensitivity. Best film of the year? Quite possibly.