4/5
One of the most anticipated biopics of the year – the Kasi Lemmons directed ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’, chronicling the tragedy-filled life of Whitney Houston is set for it’s world premiere at different dates across December.
10 years after the songstress’ shocking death, her estate partnered with music mogul Clive Davis – the man who’s often credited with discovering the New Jersey-born songbird, when she was just 19 and brought to life her story for the big screen, like it’s never been done before.
Yes, there have been a few unauthorized biopics and documentaries over the years, but none really had the scale, the access to music, the A-list team and the sheer determination, that this one boasts of.
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The film has been written by Anthony McCarton, who previously curated critically acclaimed projects like The Two Popes and Bohemian Rhapsody.
The film may follow the same template of a musical biopic, that we’ve seen before, chronicling the rise and fall of an icon – while touching upon what made and eventually broke them, but it never really pretended that it aimed to be otherwise. The movie was always promoted as an out and out celebration of Houston and her musical legacy, while also not ignoring the demons that ate away at her through the years.
As Whitney Houston, Naomi manages to humanize the woman behind the voice and even as she gets up on stage to enact some of the singer’s most iconic performances, she retains and organic warmth in her presence, so as not to turn it caricaturish.
Her biggest achievement as an actress here was to pull-off the detailed intricacies of Houston’s public persona with such authenticity, that in many scenes of those grand musical moments, you completely immerse yourself forgetting that it’s actually not the late singer herself.
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But it’s also in those deeply personal moments that Ackie mounts an emotional connection with the woman behind the voice, that renders her character more meaning and layers. Be it her sense of self-doubt and vulnerability or an inner-conflict. Naomi’s performance delivers nearly all chops of what ‘great acting’ is about.
Stanley Tucci plays Clive Davis here. The man Houston often called her industry godfather and who by all means has taken it upon himself to celebrate the diva’s legacy time and again (perhaps the reason why he also conceived and spear-headed this project). Tucci delivers one of the most memorable performances of his career, as he dons the look and persona of Davis through the decades that covered Whitney Houston’s illustrious career.
The behind-the-scenes interactions behind the two characters, as they handpick songs that eventually transform into global hits, is an amusing experience for any Pop culture enthusiast.
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The film also explores the complexities of Whitney’s relationship with her father John Houston, who famously slapped her with a $100 million suit in the year 2002, while she was already going through a professional and personal turmoil due to her drug-addictions spiraling out of control.
But the most interesting aspect of her personal life explored here is her romantic relationship with Robyn Crawford.
While Houston, never confirmed the state of her relationship with Crawford, despite years of tabloid speculations that surrounded her, their closeness was affirmed by Crawford herself, through her memoir released in the year 2019. The book also served as the basis for McCarten to form a narrative around the relationship of the two women, and how it was covered-up and sidelined in a Pop scene that wasn’t necessarily as accepting of same-sex relations then as it is now.
While the film is not as dark and gritty as Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It or Ray Charles’s Ray, it still packs several punches that make it a musical marvel in the same line of the recent musical biopics that have been celebrated with high fervor – Elvis and Bohemian Rhapsody.
It is a celebration of one of the greatest singing talents we have ever known, in the grandest way possible that certainly amounts to a thoroughly enjoyable theatrical experience.