Review: Is the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black as bad as the ...

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson thinks Back to Black "probably is the best thing [she's] done."

The biopic is the second film made about the iconic late singer Amy Winehouse. The first, directed by Asif Kapadia in 2015, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Pieced together with never-before-seen archival footage from Winehouse's teenage years, early performances and accounts from people close to Winehouse, Amy told the story of the uniquely talented young artist from beginning to end, using as many of her own words as possible.

In doing so, it captured the combination of humour, magnetism and raw emotion that Winehouse boldly poured into her work. And it showed the myriad forces that led to Winehouse's untimely demise at the tender age of 27, as the world scrutinised — and even laughed at — her substance use issues, eating disorder and heartbreak.

Taylor-Johnson's Back to Black is different in three significant ways.

Critics and fans have been wary of the film ever since its announcement, with that sense of trepidation growing following the release of the first set of photos — whereas Amy was released to acclaim from both camps. (Taylor-Johnson, who directed the 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, starring her now-husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson, told The Guardian she doesn't pay much attention to fan sentiment).

Back to Black has the support of the Winehouse estate, whereas the Amy documentary was publicly and repeatedly denounced by Winehouse's father, Mitch.

And Back to Black doesn't seek to tell the entire story of Winehouse's life or extremely public and harrowing death due to alcohol poisoning like Amy did.

Instead, it's a dramatised telling of the doomed love story between Winehouse (portrayed by relatively unknown actress Marisa Abela) and her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O'Connell), relegating much of Winehouse's personhood and career to the background.

Jack O'Connell (right) acts opposite Abela as Winehouse's ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil.(Studio Canal)

We're first introduced to a pared back, late-teenage version of Winehouse, sans-signature beehive and cat-eye, on the cusp of being handed her first record deal and producing her 2003 debut, Frank.

From the film's opening scenes, it's obvious Abela can at least hold a tune. The fact her vocal training for this film took place over just four months is even impressive. But she is not, and will never, possess anywhere near the same level of vocal talent as Winehouse, which is why Back to Black's attempt to pass her voice off as such is jarring.

Some have argued Abela's voice is of no consequence to the telling of this story. But it's hard to feel that way when Abela breaks into song in basically every scene, and when the authenticity of Winehouse's music was such a core part of her being.

And then there is the question of Abela's physical resemblance to Winehouse. Mitch Winehouse has made the admittedly fair point that Abela didn't need to look "exactly like Amy" to get the role, and Taylor-Johnson said the casting decision came down to the fact Abela didn't try to look or sound like Winehouse in any way.

"I had all these young women come in with either a hoop earring or cat eye or something," she said on The Jonathan Ross Show.

"Marisa had none of that. I was fiddling around with the camera, chatting with the casting director and I just looked in the lens and Marisa looked up and she completely transformed. She hadn't even said anything. I thought, 'That's her'."

But whatever transformation Taylor-Johnson saw in Abela in that audition room hasn't translated to her on-screen performance.

Abela's embodiment of Winehouse's performance style and mannerisms feels like a pale imitation of the star's brazenness and sensuality. And Abela's take on Winehouse's gloriously heavy North London accent is exactly what you'd expect someone educated at the 'Eton College of girls boarding schools' trying on a working-class twang to sound like.

Mitch is portrayed as Winehouse's loving though frequently oblivious father by Eddie Marsan (right).(Studio Canal)

Abela's portrayal becomes less distracting and feels slightly more natural when Winehouse and Fielder-Civil meet by chance at the legendary Camden pub, The Good Mixer, not long after Frank's success has turned her into a recognisable household name in the UK.

This is because Abela's chemistry is undeniable with O'Connell, who first made a name for himself as a 19-year-old playing the cheeky, impulsive and frequent drug user Cook on Skins. Here, he has no trouble bringing a similar level of charisma and a much-needed dose of working-class authenticity to this production.

It's in an off moment of their turbulent, drug-fuelled, sometimes violent, on-and-off relationship that Winehouse creates her second and final record — the masterful album that would catapult her to international levels of fame and critical acclaim she never thought she'd achieve, and feared she wouldn't know how to handle.

But we don't see much of Back to Black's creation — only a montage featuring Abela singing the titular track in a New York studio, coinciding with her nan Cynthia's wrenching death in London.

The film begins its final descent into sanitised darkness when Fielder-Civil calls her up again post-Back to Black success, and they begin using crack cocaine and heroin together. If the tabloids' paparazzi pictures of Winehouse during this period didn't make for grim enough content for you in real-time, rest assured Back to Black goes further, constructing its own vivid narrative of what this time was like for the people at the centre of it.

We don't see much of the second album that catapulted Winehouse into superstardom, earning her the Grammys Record of the Year in 2008. (Studio Canal)

Fielder-Civil isn't painted as the villain in this story, for breaking her heart or for any role he may have had in her substance use. Neither is Mitch, who is portrayed throughout as Winehouse's loving but often oblivious cab driver father by Eddie Marsan. Besides, Taylor-Johnson told the Guardian she doesn't believe in "stupid one dimensional demon characters".

There are only two supposed villains in this story: The paparazzi and addiction.

Winehouse's experiences with bulimia don't quite make the cut, copping only a few minutes of screentime, despite the fact she lived with the eating disorder from her teenage years onwards, and the claims that have been made about the impact it may have had on her failing health.

From Winehouse's 2008 Grammys Record of the Year win for Back to Black, the film essentially flashes forward to a few months before her death, which is inconceivably skated over with a black screen listing the details at the very end.

So, that's what you'll get if you decide to pay to see the highly anticipated Back to Black at the movies. Alternatively, Amy is streaming for free on ABC iview.

Back to Black is in cinemas now.