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Like many Joy Division fans, director Anton Corbijn clearly favours the proposition that Ian Curtis, was a poet of first rate distinction. Unfortunately he promptly sets about undermining this idea by making our hero recite the terminally uncool Wordsworth, and worse never really takes us into the little folders of angst that, who but who, at one time, doesn't possess. Little wonder that Time Out New York speaks of smudged poetry. That said a passing, shot of some book spines and a reference to the Hollow Men, breaths some life into our understanding of the intellectual background of Curtis, who's lyrics in his best songs, which are all on play here, remain exceptional in their simplicity and depth:

Mother, I tried, please believe me. I'm doing the best that I can. I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through. I'm ashamed of the person I am.


All in all though you'd be much better getting the book which inspired the film Touching from a distance, because unlike the film, it has the missing goods. In passing Dublinka readers might, enjoy the casting / guest appearance of John Cooper Clark playing himself, and reciting Evidently Chickentown.