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i saw CONTROL and had mixed feelings about it.
from an artistic direction, it was done beautifully, but i would expect nothing less from a world famous music video director. he did a great job of connecting mood and time period through b/w and costume/wardrobe.
the acting was ok, sam does a great job of recreating those famous stares and poses that we have all seen of the famous joy division documentation.
but, in the end, i wouldn't see it a second time nor would i get the dvd. i left the movie feeling like i've learned absolutely nothing about the lives of ian curtis, debbie, and any of the other people close to ian. they didn't touch on his parents hardly at all, didn't even touch on the band members, didn't touch on debbie's parents or even debbie very indepth except for what emotional problems she had with ian. and to be honest, i don't even think they touched on ian all that much.
the movie was way too predictable and i even snickered when he killed himself because of how hokey and soap-opera dramatic they made that scene to be. that scene would be great for POP UP VIDEO. it just got very hokey at many points. it would go something like this: (scene: ian sitting on the floor with a notebook/debbie comes in crying/ian doesn't say a word and scribbles "she's lost control" down in the notebook) (next scene: joy division on stage playing "she's lost control".) that's about how hokey it was. (scene: ian & debbie fighting..."love will tear us apart" played in the background).
it was as if anton tried too hard to recreate the famous still life images of the band. CONTROL is definitely something i could see mtv2 or vh1 making as a "made for tv movie".
usually i want to take something away from a movie, especially an autobiographical. i'd atleast want to learnt something more about this icon (ian curtis), but i feel i've learned nothing more than i did before i went into the movie and i wasn't even a huge fan (i really only liked CLOSER and didn't like UNKNOWN PLEASURES all that much).
that was a great thing about WALK THE LINE. they did a great job of not being so predictable and really recreating a more in-depth life of june & johnny cash. how hokey would it have been if they recreated that scene of him flipping the bird at the show?
in my opinion, it was not a bad movie. i think it was beautiful from an artistic direction, but i thought the writing lacked depth and substance and that left me feeling like the movie was a bit superficial and just purely masterbatory for anton's fantasies.
but that's the price you pay for having a music video director take on a movie (his first). they are going to be a bit more literal and straight forward because that's just how music videos are done.
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