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As she threw that head back and those arms wide open, Whitney Houston was a singer in total command, pirouetting that voice to reach an impossible range, dipping and soaring, again and again, and then again.
No writer herself, she sang cover versions of old hits, mostly about finding oneself, nothing too serious, nothing too high brow. However, the power of her lilting voice lifted whatever she touched – including that pretty mediocre film that became the blockbuster The Bodyguard, riding on her ballad that would also become one of the biggest hits of all time, I Will Always Love You.
In comparison, I Wanna Dance with Somebody can seem pretty tame, following a familiar trajectory of discovery, fame, fragility and fall, with a capricious family hanging in the shadows. Houston didn’t face the struggle that lifts some of these stories, coming from a family that was already in the music business. The rest of her short life didn’t stray far from those of other artistes before and after her, except for the fact that she was no “victim”.
Unlike, for example, The Bohemian Rhapsody – that film on Freddie Mercury and I Wanna Dance with Somebody have a common writer/producer – where Mercury’s peccadilloes are gently blamed on someone else, Houston is very much the driver of her own story. Still, the filmmakers remain as PG-13 cautious about showing the sale and consumption of the prodigious amounts of cocaine which caused Houston’s steep and quick downfall.
Given how clear Houston is in the film about her money, her music, her label, and keeping on her girlfriend Robyn (Williams) who could have been more, the accusations that she turns around and throws at her father (Peters) can seem inconsistent.
And this is what I Wanna Dance With Somebody suffers from — a serious effort to tell her story and not just compile a series of incidents and a number of Houston hits, and hope to do the job. You know what you know about Houston, and you come away not knowing anything more.
Ackie, who lacks that star quality that marked Houston, makes it up with an almost flawless performance – down to her beating fingers on a mic in the eponymous song of the film’s title. Williams struggles to justify what Houston saw in Robyn, or to portray the strength of their forbidden – if lasting – bond. Of the rest of the supporting cast, Tucci is good without trying too hard while Tunie as Houston’s mother does well with the little she gets.
However, this film belongs to Ackie – or rather Houston – alone. It is an unapologetic ode to one of the greatest voices of all time, and for the duration of its length, it’s a memorable reminder of this.
And of all that Houston accomplished before she was found, in a cliche, in a bathtub, of accidental drowning with drugs in her system – she beat records set by both the Beatles and Elvis ‘The King’ Presley, zoomed consistently to No.1, became America’s first black sweetheart, erased those titles, and paved the way for others to follow.
Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance with Somebody movie director: Kasi Lemmons
Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance with Somebody movie cast: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, Tamara Tunie, Nafessa Williams, Clarke Peters
Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance with Somebody movie rating: 2.5 stars
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