I went along to the premier of a movie called Joy Division the other week and the flyer has been sitting around my room since, mainly because I wanted to check out what the reviewers really said about it. Call it a gut feeling.

The film, which is about World War II not the band, is described as "An ambitious debut", apparently, by total film and "Impressive" by Empire.

What total film actually said, in describing the film as "schizoid" and giving it three stars out of five, was: "Juggling technical élan with musings on memory, identity and freedom, it’s an ambitious debut from Brit director Reg Traviss. But maybe next time he shouldn’t try to make two films at once."

What Empire actually said in describing it as "impressive" was: "The survival plotline may be more weighty, but it’s simply not as engaging as speaking code and assassination by umbrella, and although the eras are given equal weight, one needs pruning. Get past this, however, and there are several impressive elements; the performances from Ed Stoppard and Bernard Hill are both strong, and the very lean budget has been wisely spent."

Again it got three out of five stars, which in my opinion is generous. The voice-over narration is incessant and its attempts at profundity fail embarrasingly. Empire's verdict: "A little muddled in places, overly-narrated in others, but Traviss' film is rarely dull, and he has proven himself – along with leading man Stoppard – as one to keep watching."