Sam Riley

In Control (2007), Sam Riley's Ian Curtis can hold our attention at a microphone and then struggle with an ordinary conversation. The change is small enough that we never feel the actor explaining the man. We were moved by how little the assurance of his singing seemed to help him once he stopped. Riley gives the concert scenes physical force, but he also lets Curtis be uncertain without making uncertainty his only trait. That keeps him worth watching through passages where a less attentive performance might leave us waiting for another song.

The part launched his acting career, and his experience as frontman of Leeds band 10,000 Things gave him a practical connection to performing music. Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock (2010) and Sal Paradise in On the Road (2012) took him towards literary adaptations. He also took supporting work as Diaval in Maleficent (2014). His Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) belongs to that move into genre work. Yet the recurring invitation to play brooding men suggests a casting habit worth resisting.

Anton Corbijn gives him more to do in Control than sustain a solemn expression. The dry humour matters, as does the space Riley shares with Samantha Morton: both are allowed to make life away from the concerts worth our attention. Corbijn's patience helps us watch Riley's changes, although some domestic scenes carry on after we have understood the difficulty. We wanted a firmer cut there, not a more demonstrative leading performance. Riley has already done enough to make us care.

We would welcome more parts that leave room for the dry humour Corbijn allows. The concern is not that Riley keeps playing introspective men; it is that filmmakers might treat a solemn look as sufficient characterisation. Control gives him people to respond to and work to perform, and he makes both count. Start there, provided a music biography with this much time between songs sounds like an evening well spent.