Minutes into I Am: Céline Dion, the beloved singer’s remarkably unguarded documentary chronicling her struggle with a rare neurological disorder, the queen of power ballads is on the floor, in fetal position, surrounded by staff. Someone has called 911. Someone asks if she is in pain, to which she can only moan. The scene is fleeting, scary and succinct – when Dion says that life with stiff-person syndrome has been difficult, she means it.
Like her music, which has cut through the emotional defenses of millions across languages, I Am: Céline Dion is unabashedly sentimental, deeply earnest and, for a true pop diva, mostly devoid of ego, with a few exceptions. (I would watch an hour more of her touring her massive Vegas warehouse of clothes.) And it toggles between great poles of volume, as director Irene Taylor collages archival performance footage from a 30-plus year career with Dion’s new reality of convalescence. High note after high note on stage, nearly blowing out the microphone at a 90s recording session, cuts to Dion shuffling around her Vegas home with her aging Labrador.
