Amy Winehouse story flattened in frustrating biopic ‘Back to Black’

This image released by Focus Features shows Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in a scene from "Back to Black." A conventionally told biopic about a talented artist who became famous, struggled with drugs, depression and bulimia, and died early. There are nice performances from gifted actors like Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville, and a soundtrack of hits that helps fill the space.

“Amy” was also a movie that didn’t sit well with her grieving family. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, said it was misleading and contained “basic untruths.” After it won the Oscar,saying that it had no bearing on her life and was manipulative. Kapadia, he said, was more exploitative of his daughter than anyone.

The screenplay by Matthew Greenhalgh is empathetic to the ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil and her father Mitch , both of whom have been villainized over the years. In the film, most are just caught up in a whirl of inevitability and the retrospective blur of grief. Though linear, the story is also oddly confusing, assuming that the audience knows many details of her life and the people in it. The film rushes through major career moments in montage, seeming to slow down only for a few things: A performance, Amy’s face in various forms of drunken distress and agony or scenes with her and Blake. Was it attempting a freewheeling jazz form, or is it just messy?

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