Wiggly Socks Movie Reviews

By Linda Winsh-Bolard



In a dreary looking landscape of the council flats of early seventies Britain, rock, pot, pills and sex flow among the young. There is little else to do.

Or so it seems during the opening scenes of the film. Yet, as time has shown, the temptations of that time while potent in their youth, did not overcome essential upbringing and convention of the people. And so Ian Curtis, a young musician who works in the unemployment assignment office during the day and spends his nights at rock concerts, asks his girlfriend Debbie to marry him; not long after they marry he wishes to have a child as well.

In both cases Debbie agrees. They move into slightly less dreary neighborhood, have a child and a life for which they might not be ready but which is expected of them.

The stumbling stones couple: Ian is truly talented musician but he suffers from epilepsy, depression and possibly other mental disorders. Unlike many in his position, he is not smitten by his growing fame, he is terrified of it, of its demands on him, of his lack of control over his life. His torments grow when he starts a love affair with Belgian girl called Annik.

Here he too he seems to have lost control. He says he loves Debbie and does not want to lose her, but has long dialogs about love with Annik who follows him on all his concert tourn'e with his band, Joy Division, while Debbie stays at home with their child. The reconciliation between mother and lover figure fails to happen to Ian.

Debbie gets tired of it. She wants more than a gratitude for all she had given, if more is not available, she wants a divorce. And Ian’s world comes apart.

The film is based on the memoir book written by Deborah Curtis in cooperation with the then photographer, now film director Anton Corbijn who knew Ian as well as possible. Yet, how well anyone knew Ian remains an unanswered question. Apart from his music, which plays well in the film, who Ian was and what he wanted, remains unclear, possibly because he was always an enigma even to himself. He felt torn, but his insecurities are dramatically different from the loud screaming of his generation. How much was his illness involved, what really killed a 23 years old on the way up, remains largely up to the audience to decide. I expect that it is fully intended.

Sam Riley portrays the different sides of Ian in almost episodically different sequences, each of them a small capsule in time of a man, who except for Debbie, seems to be isolated from the world on a different plane where he writes, feels and sings but where he also looses all ties to reality. His marriage and his affair with Annik are given the same clear eyed treatment, with Ian unable to understand what went wrong. Samantha Morton’s Debbie is the anchor to reality, very well delivered. Alexandra Maria Lara and Sam Riley are excellent in their roles and the supporting parts are equally well performed.

The film is shot in black and white, slowly, in classical composition with ongoing narrative. It presents a clear observation point punctured by internal Ian’s monologs. It does not judge, or glorify anybody who is involved in the process of making music, or living with it. For all what’s it worth, it might be a cinematic gravestone for a talented man.

A Becker Intl. (Australia) presentation of a Northsee Ltd (U.K.) production, in association with EM Media (U.K.)/IFF, CINV, 3 Dogs and a Pony (Japan)/Warner Music (U.K.). (International sales: Becker Films Intl., Sydney.) Produced by Orian Williams, Anton Corbijn, Todd Eckert. Executive producers, Iain Canning, Akira Ishii, Korda Marshall, Lizzie Francke. Co-producers, Peter Heslop, Deborah Curtis, Tony Wilson. Directed by Anton Corbijn, Camera: Martin Ruhe, Screenplay: Matt Greenhalgh, based on the book "Touching From the Distance" by Deborah Curtis.

Ian Curtis - Sam Riley
Debbie Curtis - Samantha Morton
Tony Wilson - Craig Parkinson
Annik Honore - Alexandra Maria Lara
Hooky - Joe Anderson
Bernard Summer - James Anthony Pearson
Rob Gretton - Toby Kebbell
Steve Morris - Harry Treadway
Terry - Andrew Sheridan
Twinny - Robert Shelly