by Steve Bennett

Oh Frank, what have they done to you? Aside from that unique papier maché head, the Sidebottom of this highly fictionalised account of life in his band is far removed from the figure who fans will know for spreading such silliness and joy with songs about being on Match Of The Day in his big shorts.

As played by Michael Fassbender – well, presumably, it could almost be anyone in there –Frank is not a comedian but an Artist with a capital A – and svengali-like hold over his very serious band of pretentious musicians. Timperley doesn’t get a look-in – instead the musicians hole up in a remote shack in rural Ireland (presumably as that’s where the film tax breaks are for film-makers) to agonise over every note they want to lay down, making their own instruments,recording natural sounds and sticking to a new musical scale Frank invented.

This Frank is, therefore, part Captain Beefhart perfectionist – not the immediate word to spring to mind with the gloriously shambolic Sidebottom – and part Jim Morrison charismatic, damaged shaman. The film gives huge significance to the head, which this Frank never removes, not even in the shower. It represents the purity of the artistic vision as well as the total immersion in the alter ego.

There is no doubt that the late Chris Sievey, creator of the original, was a unique performer who set his own path, and it is this creative drive that has been amplified and explored here. An out-and-out comedy it is not, however, although there are some darkly comic touches.

Written by Jon Ronson, it is loosely based on the journalist’s own experiences as part of Sidebottom’s Oh Blimey Big Band. The way the fictional Jon is recruited, by casually mentioning that he plays keyboard just as the group, here called Soronprfbs, finds itself in need of one is identical to the way he has described joining up, too. The portrayal of his own character is not particularly flattering; an aspiring rock star who sees songs as a way out of his suburban conformity, unwilling to be hampered by the cold, hard truth that he doesn’t have the muse to break out from the mould.

As part of the band, Jon – whose transition is played with sympathetic egotism by Domhall Gleeson (who also wrote his own, bad, songs for the movie) – tries to compromise their weird integrity for commercial success, via an appearance at the influential SXSW festival in Texas. Frank’s intrigued by getting his message out there, but the rest of the band are more suspicious of their new keyboardist, out to maximise his social media presence ahead of exploring essential truths about the human condition. This tug-of-war lies at the heart of a drama that explores themes of identity, and the masks – either figurative or literal, in Frank’s case – we use to project ourselves.

Perhaps Ronson’s been delving too deep into the world of psychopathy of late, but it’s all pretty serious stuff, complete with themes of mental illness and suicidal thoughts. Director Lenny Abrahamson, who’s reputation is built on portraying outsiders in movies such as Adam & Paul, is hardly known for his levity, either.

Still, it’s far from being a bobbins film. In a world where Sidebottom never existed, Frank would be a poignant, artsy movie about the ups and downs of being in a band that’s been made with the same eccentric certainty as its central character exhibits (even if we have to take the supporting cast’s word that he is so compellingly charismatic, as it’s often hard to see). And if you weren’t a fan of Sidebottom, that would be the way to view it.

But it’s a shame the original Sidebottom’s modest joie de vivre doesn’t shine through, save for an allegedly ‘mainstream’ number Frank composes in a hotel room on the eve of the band’s festival appearance. Instead, the focus is entirely on the complexities and troubles behind that mask. Still, the film’s strangeness haunts long after the cinema lights have come up, and celebrates in a suitably charming and quirky way the principals that created a comic one-off.

• Frank is out in cinemas today.

Review date: 9 May 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett