England Is Mine

Let's set some axioms before we can appraise this work. 1) The Smiths were the greatest rock'n'roll band of all time. 2) Morrissey is the world's greatest living poet. From that axiomatic base, there can be nothing but high hopes for a film about Morrissey's beginnings. Sadly, this film is a non-starter on all counts, because any Smiths fan knows going into it that Morrissey has always refused to license the rights to the songs after that well-known 'How Soon is Now' debacle. Therefore, we can expect to hear none of the music and none of the lyrics. So, what is the point of making the film? The answer is, 'There is no point at all'. And what is the point of watching the film? The answer is, 'There is no point at all'. Let's get one thing absolutely clear; 'Control' this is not; '24 Hour Party People' this is not; 'Nowhere Boy' this is not. Suffice to say, a watchable, entertaining film this is not.

"England Is Mine" isn't a movie about Morrissey (the actor doesn't even look like him) or The Smiths. If you're looking for a film about them, you won't find it here (besides, like many other movies about real musicians, this one wasn't allowed to use real music either).

Who has not looked for a job and, at the same time, was afraid to find it? Who has not preferred to do anything instead of risking doing something for fear of succeeding? These, among a few others, seem to be the main questions of this film. It doesn't offer any answer, however.

If you want to see a guy rejecting all the women that are given to him, this is a movie for you.

The film could've been better.

A film/docudrama about the early days of The Smiths/Morrissey. When this is set, in the late 70's, if you took a photograph and had it developed you would have got a photo and a negative copy. This film is like the negative of the events. It's like the uninteresting part of something special...... and don't get me wrong . The Smiths were special, in every sense of the word. Shame, what could have been..........

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...

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.