Review: Marisa Abela gives her all to capturing Amy Winehouse's life in 'Back to Black'
There are many things wrong with this sanitized biopic of the uncensored British wild child of song that was Amy Winehouse. But the things that go right with "Back to Black," now in theaters, start with Marisa Abela, who gives her blazing all to capturing Winehouse's short, turbulent life (she died in 2011 of alcohol poisoning) with stunning ferocity and feeling.
Since Winehouse's voice was an amalgam of her distinctive influences, mostly of Black singers such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Lauryn Hill, detractors feel that Abela should have lip-synched to Winehouse's vocals instead of doing it herself. Let's agree to disagree. The immediacy of Abela's vocals catches the essence of Winehouse's style that fused soul, jazz, funk, blues and R&B.
One sticking point: This movie about an alternately frisky and fragile angel of music needed way more music. Luckily, you can hear Winehouse in your head even as the movie trudges along until Winehouse joins the tragic 27 Club of rockers (Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison, Cobain) who died at 27.
The film begins with Winehouse's formative years, stepping up at the piano with her estranged parents Mitch (Eddie Marsan) and Janis (Juliet Cowan), along with gran Cynthia (the great Lesley Manville), to sing Yiddish songs around the piano. That's before Winehouse meets the hottie love of her life, Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O'Connell), sparking her addiction to drugs and to him.
If you saw "Amy," Asif Kapadia's Oscar-winning, gloves-off 2015 doc about the house of Winehouse, "Back to Black" will play like a ludicrous fairytale. Kapadia is hard on Winehouse's cab driver dad for pushing his daughter to overwork and telling her not to enter rehab, which inspired one of her hit songs. And Kapadia nails Winehouse's eventual husband Fielder-Civil as a shameless opportunist.
Whether or not the Winehouse family had approval on "Back to Black," both men are handled far more sympathetically in the script by Matt Greenhalgh. Maybe director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who tenderized the early years of John Lennon in "Nowhere Boy," wanted to paint a portrait of Winehouse untainted by her tabloid notoriety. You be the judge.
Taylor-Johnson, who also directed "Fifty Shades of Gray," puts real sizzle into the first meeting between Winehouse and Fielder-Civil as these tattooed babies flirt over a pool game. Fielder-Civil pretends he doesn't know who Winehouse is. Later he takes credit for introducing Winehouse to "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las, doing a singalong dance to the '60s hit that will strongly influence her sound.
Sexual attraction is a difficult thing to fake on screen. But Abela and O'Connell make you feel the heat. O'Connell exudes the swaggering bad-boy charisma that turns on Winehouse. And Abela returns the favor with a come-on carnality that singes the screen. Previously best known as the scheming financial wizard on TV's "Industry," Abela is now officially a star.
The musical connection between the two continues when Winehouse records her second and final album, "Back to Black," a popular and artistic triumph based on how Winehouse feels about Fielder-Civil, even as their drug-codependency poisons the well of any possible future.
Music was the one thing that carried Winehouse through until she lost her war with drugs. Abela's knockout take on Winehouse singing "Rehab" live on the night she won a Grammy is a thrilling moment this curiously flat movie could have used way more of.
Still, even the film's shortcomings can't dim Abela's starshine. The look, the strut, the soul of Winehouse are all there in her marvel of a portrayal. Abela gets so far under Winehouse's skin that you feel at times that they are breathing as one.
In these moments, you can almost forget how often this botch of a biopic buries itself in a tragic trajectory of drug-related cliches. Abela deserved better. So does Winehouse. And so do audiences.
