England Is Mine

A handsome little biopic that's sopping wet with the same clichés that its whiny hero so adamantly disavows...

England is Mine is watchable but not special and those with the strongest interest in the story may be unhappy about what's missing.

For the majority, Lowden feels restrained by a director who has a very specific, flat vision of a musical legend.

For the millions of true believers out there - the ones who loved him in 1985 and who would prefer to live in the past rather than listen to the 2017 version of their former hero - the film provides a blissfully melancholy roll call of pleasures.

There is ... a great deal of moping.

[A] muted, sometimes arresting drama ...

Someone already versed in Morrissey could sit there and check off the influences, but someone who goes in knowing nothing about the man will see only the surface, the occasional photo or song snippet.

As it capably chronicles Morrissey's artistic process and the influential cultural backdrop, the film shortchanges everyone on the music. The result feels out of tune.

Given the man himself is so interesting, it's frustrating that his portrayal is so bland.

You're left with a lovingly rendered portrait of a cipher, a protagonist who never lets you in and therefore one in whom you can't invest too much emotion.

Sensitive and unironic, Jack Lowden shines in ENGLAND IS MINE with his depiction of the boy who would become Moz. While unable to access to the music so important to its subject's story, the film admirably finds the heart of our star.

The film succeeds in portraying a faithful representation, interior and exterior, of working class life in '80s Manchester.