Amy Winehouse’s Tragic Story Recounted Again in the Film “Back to Black”

When Amy Winehouse exploded onto the music scene, critics and fans hailed her gutbucket authenticity. Her undeniable talent was in full effect, both on record and for those lucky enough to see her in concert. Understandably, there have been several attempts to explain her tragically short life on screen. The latest effort is a mixed bag, with enough interesting elements that fans will certainly want to watch the film, but the casual viewer may be left dismayed.

Back to Black is a cinematic portrait that attempts to distill Winehouse’s complex life. The prior documentary (2015’s Amy) covered the same ground with original footage and talking heads, but here we have a biographical drama, which suffers the challenges invariably faced by all such films. Trying to compress an entire life into the running time of a feature film, no matter how short the life, inevitably causes various elements to be given short shrift. The earlier documentary did a great job exploring Winehouse’s sensational rise and subsequent struggles with addiction. Back to Black chooses a more narrative-driven approach, dramatizing key moments of her tumultuous career and personal demons.

The film is named after Winehouse’s powerful 2006 album, which tracks at only 34 minutes. That choice of title for the film itself is probably a reference to the singer’s sad short career.

At the heart of Back to Black is a haunting performance by Maris Abela, who portrays Winehouse with a certain level of authenticity that both thrills and disturbs. From her prior roles (“Industry” and “Rogue Agent”) one would not have expected such a bravura performance from the actress. Abela looks the part, especially when bedecked with Winehouse’s take on the classic beehive hairdo and swept wing eyelashes. More impressively, Abela apparently sang live her performances while filming. This is a recurring and tricky element of such music biographies because an inauthentic voice will take ardent fans out of the film and dismay those viewers less familiar with the musician being portrayed. Nonetheless, Abela ably captures the raw and somewhat jagged quality of Winehouse’s unique vocal delivery.

A consistent theme in the film is the unrelenting attraction of drugs and alcohol, which the film contrasts effectively with the brief moments of joy and triumph that making music brings Winehouse. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson is no stranger to telling a compelling story about a volatile character. Her treatment of a pre-Beatles John Lennon in “Nowhere Boy” was one of the highlights of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Taylor-Johnson does a fine job in Back to Black of presenting the tension between Winehouse’s undeniable talent and her self-destructive behavior.

The film also delves deeply into Winehouse’s resistance to rehabilitation, portraying the complex dynamic between fame, addiction and the pressure to conform to public expectations. The sad hindsight that rehabilitation would’ve given Winehouse a fighting chance to continue making her remarkable art is subtly delivered, leaving the viewer to question what is it about fame or meeting the public’s expectation that causes a talent like Winehouse to reject such a solution to obvious problems.