Back to Black, the long-awaited biopic on Amy Winehouse, played by Marisa Abela, a British actress little known to most who naturally tried to make the most of the opportunity of her life, transfiguring herself into the talented girl from Camden who in just a few years had conquered the world with his music and his voice. Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, who had already ventured into the genre in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, the story of John Lennon's youthful years, a film that is remembered more because on the set she met her future and young husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson (23 years age difference , he was 19 at the time) than for the service rendered to the former Beatle.
The director said that she wanted to tell Amy's story through an autobiography that was, in her opinion, given little consideration: her songs. Without prejudice to the fact that the statement leaves a little time for her to find, it is true that the suffering was all in the words sung by that truly unique and missing voice. What comes out, according to Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh, is the portrait of a girl who just wanted to be loved, to have a normal life with a man by her side, children to raise and her own songs to write when she was inspired. Unfortunately, at the same time, she was also a self-destructive personality, whose fragility was further exacerbated by the British media, who continually besieged her house hoping to be able to photograph her drunk, under the influence of drugs, perhaps bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend and then husband Blake Fielder-Civil. All while she lost the greatest love of her life, her grandmother Cynthia Levy.
Back to Black equates the sad life of Amy Winehouse with that of Lady Diana Spencer, unhappy women, persecuted by bulimia and the paparazzi, who see their father as the North Star. Amy also has the responsibility of having no justifications for being who she is, her alcohol was her addiction and her escape from that reality that hurt her so much.
In short, she is not given a proper burial. Marisa Abela's interpretation, as well as those of many others who try their hand at the role of the rock star, is more reminiscent of a Tale and Which Show performance. Poor Jack O'Connell, a very talented actor who deserves much better opportunities than this, is good in the role of the love of his life Blake, who however passes first as a sleazy opportunist and then as a man overwhelmed by the woman's addictions.
It's bizarre to say the least to see a film directed by a director who makes men look much better than they probably are. And who also forgets, or rather avoids remembering, other situations, such as the relationship with Alex Clare, which contributed to creating the negative legend of a cursed woman for the use and consumption of the tabloids.
Written by Guendalina Porta