England Is Mine

At last, a musical biopic that doesn't throw in cheap references, nor equally cheap laughs, and instead gives us a sober, realistic and not always warm character study of the formative years of one of Britain's best loved singer-songwriters. But be warned - if you have no interest in Steven Patrick Morrissey, indeed if you have a passing love for the band and aren't too bothered in learning how he came up with the lyrics that he did, then much of ENGLAND IS MINE might not do a lot for you. This film is definitely one for the proper fans, and for those of us in that position it's a real treat.

Lots to love about this one. Jack Lowden might not look a lot like Morrissey but he gets across very well the sense of alienation and perpetual disappointment that surrounds our hero. He's bored and unfulfilled with every aspect of his life, feeling like there's something more out there and yet too shy and not forthcoming enough to go after it. That lack of belonging is something many young people experience - I know I did - and Morrissey is kind of the Dean of that time in life, and Lowden nails it. His friendship with Linder (fantastic Jessica Brown Findlay) shows him finding a rare kindred spirit, and he reacts to the lost chance of success he arrives at briefly with Adam Lawrence's Billy Duffy by doing what we would all like to and retreating to his bedroom.

The period detail is excellent - you get the vision of late 70s/early 80s Manchester as a bit of a dive, crammed with lost souls and angry voices, from which Morrissey feels entirely apart. Lovely touches, like the cracked, single pane windows upon which rain hammers, add to to reality.

The choice of musical numbers is another bonus. There are no Smiths tracks, given the tale essayed here takes place before the band was formed. Instead we get the 1960s songs that heavily influenced the group's sound, and that's a real bonus. The era before the Smiths existed really feels like another place, another time, bereft of something that they ended up filling. One nice bit of detail, the local venue that exhibits posters for an upcoming Duran Duran concert while Morrissey and Marr (Laurie Kynaston, not in it much) start hammering out the more localised and altogether grittier music and lyrics that would eventually form the Smiths, a great snatch of visual storytelling that the film stuffs in.

And if you aren't interested in that, there's the gallows humour of young Mozzer to enjoy, an acerbic wit that would put people off and yet find expression in his words put to Marr's tunes.

Manchester, 1976. Steven Patrick Morrissey is unemployed and depressed. He eventually finds work but it doesn't interest him. His only interest appears to be writing down his observations on life and people in a journal. We see his life over the next six years and how this period would have a bearing on his later life for, in 1982, he was to form The Smiths, one of the most influential bands of the 80s.

A fascinating subject. But then I am a Smiths fan and therein lies what will probably make or break the movie for most people: knowing Morrissey's subsequent history, spotting all the watershed moments, sensing how things that happen in the movie might influence his music - only Smiths fans would know it. The ending, especially, would seem rather cryptic to anyone who isn't one.

So, really only for Smiths fans, and even if you are one it takes a bit of patience. Can be slow-moving at times.

However, it is quite interesting and edifying and reasonably engaging. Performances are top-notch.

What would have made it really interesting is showing the formation of The Smiths and their initial struggles. But that would be a whole new movie in itself, I suppose. I'll wait for the sequel...

Steven Patrick Morrissey (Jack Lowden) is a painfully introverted, self-important genius in working class Manchester. His parents are fighting and eventually his father leaves the family. His girlfriend Anji pushes him to start a band but he's too picky to even meet with perspective bandmates. After she breaks up with him, he is taken with outgoing art student Linder Sterling (Jessica Brown Findlay). The other person breaking down his walls is guitarist Billy Duffy. Steven works in a stuffy office with clingy co-worker Christine (Jodie Comer). With much cajoling, Steven performs with Billy and they are invited to London. After the gig falls through and Billy joins another band, Steven falls into a deep depression. Eventually, he follows Billy's recommendation to join guitarist Johnny Marr with whom he would go on to form The Smiths.

Morrissey is a depressed, painfully introverted, self-delusional, emo teen and not the fun kind. This may be real or it may be fiction. I'm not too concerned about that. I would give more importance to Anji especially if the movie proposes her to be his catalyst in one of the most pivotal scenes. "Call me when you grow a pair" is not good enough for their breakup. She needs to have a hint of her medical issue. Her breakup speech needs to be bigger. Christine may be real or not. Again I don't care. Other than some comedic turns, she's a nothing character who threatens to be something and thankfully turns out to be nothing. I have an idea. Let Comer play Anji, expend her role, and eliminate Christine. I suspect that this movie would be better received without the biopic aspect. In the end, it is biopic and critics will ding it for misinterpretations.

It is a good start i tell you that. Let's make it a trilogy: right after this its the smiths and the third is the solo. I wonder which One will be highest rating...

What a disappointing pile of garbage. This film could have been so much more but all it did was take a few key events from wikipedia and make a movie. "If you have five seconds to spare, then I'll tell you the story of my life / Sixteen, clumsy and shy / That's the story of my life." The film was Clumsy in the making, shy in the facts and was a waste of more than 5 seconds of my life.