BACK TO BLACK ★★★

In cinemas; Cert 15A

A backlash is already under way here. At its worst, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s hugely anticipated Amy Winehouse biopic is a bit of a soap opera. At its best, it allows some terrific actors to show us what they’re capable of.

Indeed, the film’s cast applies delicacy and professionalism to a near-impossible task. Everyone brings their A-game; nobody is out to cause offence. The problems, however, are on the page, and Matt Greenhalgh’s silly, shallow screenplay is loaded with clumsy exposition and irksome rock-flick cliches.

Marisa Abela is our Amy, a charismatic jazz enthusiast who sets the world alight with her voice. The early years are covered in a flash. There is the obligatory family singalong where a young Winehouse delights her nearest and dearest over wine and birthday cake. Grandmother Cynthia (Lesley Manville) is proud as punch; dad Mitch (Eddie Marsan) joins her for a duet.

Before we know it, Amy is signed to Island Records where she inevitably disappoints the various movers and shakers who’d like to control her. “I ain’t no Spice Girl,” she tells them, and that’s the end of that.

Alas, Amy is secretly struggling with an eating disorder, and her drinking is becoming a problem. It all comes to a head after she meets her future husband: a cocky troublemaker named Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell). Chaos ensues.

Taylor-Johnson’s film works hard to depict the grisly truths of drug addiction and the horrid, inhumane behaviour of the paparazzi who stalked and harassed Winehouse.

It’s perhaps less successful at providing a meaningful portrait of her talent, and Back to Black offers no real sense of the singer’s accomplishments, and what they meant to her.

As such, it’s a little weightless, a tad rushed. Greenhalgh’s dialogue is too showy, too melodramatic, and there are times when Back to Black walks and talks like a shouty EastEnders special.

Full marks to its leading woman: Abela’s performance is more of an impersonation, but it’s a good one, and it deserves a stronger film. Will this one annoy viewers? Probably. Is it the disaster many expected? Not quite. It’s all just a bit pointless, really.

Chris Wasser