Marisa Abela Aptly Recreates Amy Winehouse in Back to Black

Amy Winehouse was enormously talented with songwriting skills and a voice as unique and tortured as the Grammy winning artist herself.  Not be confused with the 2018 documentary ‘Amy Winehouse: Back To Black,’ this narrative feature delves into the extraordinary story of  her brief and early rise to fame from days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black, which catapulted Winehouse into global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces  surface layers of the iconic artist and her tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.

Mostly centering around her meeting, falling in love and multiple attempts of getting together and breaking up with her beloved Blake, Back to Black, without a doubt, is  a haunting  insight into heartbreak and no matter how many times one  attempts to move on, the initial passion  igniting the flame extinguishes, yet sears the spirit and soul forever.

Marisa Abela (who trained on guitar and vocals for the role) exceptionally captures the energetic vibe and manic personality of Winehouse.  Eerily reminiscent of the late singer, every note and nearly every move in performance and out borders on perfection. Her performance is only enhanced and supported by Eddie Marsan (Mitch), Lesley Manville (Nan) and Jack O’Connell (Blake).

While it is understandable the challenge of encapsulating a life and career in less than two hours, Matt Greenhaigh’s screenplay has a tendency to feel not fully fleshed out in regards to the singer and her actual rise in the music industry.  Details are glazed over like her rise actually beginning on the popular UK talent program X-Factor prior to signing with Simon Fuller’s 19 Management Group and mostly focuses on the events leading up to, during and after recording her famous album.  The most endearing moments ring from a simple song and dance with her father Mitch, while learning her signature hairdo and look were inspired from her Grandmother.  However, none of that will stop audiences from enjoying Abela’s musical moments, even with a little over the top neck swiveling from time to time.

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, this film seems rushed with an agenda to focus more on the artist and the negativity that engulfed her life from drinking to drugs to unhealthy personal relationships. Yet, while all of those things absolutely are true and definitively occurred – Marisa Abela and Amy deserve better with a story that could have been a little more balanced between the good, the bad and the ugly.