The music of Amy Winehouse takes a back seat in Back to Black

When and how to honor celebrities who have passed away at a young age is a tricky prospect, doubly so if that person died under tragic circumstances of their own making. That’s the dilemma facing Back to Black, a biopic about singer Amy Winehouse coming a mere 13 years after she died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.

The film, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh, starts as a young Amy (Marisa Abela) is about to set off on her singing career. Encouraged by her father, Mitch (Eddie Marsan), Amy takes her love of jazz music and updates it with her confessional songwriting and unique voice. Unfortunately, she also has a drinking problem, a combustible personality, and a habit of picking codependent partners like Blake (Jack O’Connell).

The story charts her rise to fame, including her acclaimed debut album, Frank, and her Grammy-winning second album, Back to Black. It also, of course, follows her descent into full-blown alcoholism, a journey that few in her life seem willing or able to try to prevent. The juxtaposition of her enormous talent and the way she sabotages herself make up the drama of the film on the way to its inevitable ending.

It’s easy to see the quandary that Taylor-Johnson and Greenhalgh had in making the film. If you focus too much on Winehouse’s music, you run the risk of sugarcoating the life of someone with significant demons. But if you pay too much attention to her faults, then you’re overshadowing the reason she became famous in the first place. Unfortunately, the filmmakers chose the latter option, and the film as a whole suffers because of it.

If you didn’t know anything about Winehouse’s career, this is not the film to watch as it gives almost no insight into her creative process. Her various hits – “Valerie,” “Rehab,” and “Back to Black” – all come fully formed in the film, with only small allusions to how they came to be or what they mean to her personally. The movie talks about what an intimate thing music is for Winehouse but doesn’t give the audience the ability to fully relate to that feeling.

Taylor-Johnson and Greenhalgh do, however, revel in the negative aspects of Winehouse’s life. Her drinking and often disagreeable nature were clearly a big part of who she was, but in the film it often seems like that’s all there was to her. She has run-ins with virtually every significant person in her life, making it unclear why anyone would put up with someone like that, talented or not. While there are some attempts at softening her, they’re too few and too ineffectual to matter.

The lone bright spot of the film is the performance of Abela. The English actor, previously best known for starring in the TV show Industry, puts in great work, doing solid impersonations of Winehouse’s distinctive speaking and singing voice. She does so well in the singing part, in fact, that it’s a shame she doesn’t get more opportunities to show it off. Even when saddled with the dreary portions of the story, she remains a compelling presence.

Making a biopic about Amy Winehouse is as close to a lose-lose proposition as you can get, and the results in Back to Black don’t do anything to dispel that notion. Winehouse’s life is one worth delving into, but only in the proper storytelling hands. To see a more successful version, check out the 2015 documentary Amy.

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Back to Black opens in theaters on May 17.