Mostly, almost entirely, it is not British actor Naomi Ackie’s singing voice you hear as Whitney Houston in the smooth, enjoyable new biopic “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
The unmatchable voice of the late pop phenomenon, not just any voice but The Voice, comes through, rangy, supercharged and ever-amazing, on the big hits newly remixed from Houston’s original vocals. Nobody’s trying to sing like Whitney Houston while playing the role of Whitney Houston.
And no, Ackie doesn’t physically resemble Houston, whose story here begins in 1983, singing in the Baptist church choir led by her mother, Cissy, and ends with Houston’s 2012 death in the bathtub of a Beverly Hilton suite.
