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.
Both no’s are fine with me. They’re choices, not mistakes — questions of casting (look-alike, or not so much?) and musical approach (subject’s voice, lip-synced by leading performer, or not?) every biopic of any musical great must answer.
This one is directed with a straightforward, humane touch by Kasi Lemmons (whose previous pictures include ”Eve’s Bayou,” the criminally under-seen Don Cheadle-starring “Talk to Me” and “Harriet”). It has its standard-issue components and the air of a highly official presentation of events. The Houston estate representatives, along with Arista Records legend Clive Davis, Houston’s mentor and sounding board, are all over this thing.
Gratifyingly, screenwriter Anthony McCarten deals with Houston’s crucial lifelong friendship, eventual working relationship and (years before her marriage to Bobby Brown) romantic life with Robyn Crawford. Ackie’s loose, funny early scenes with Nafessa Williams’ Crawford give the movie what it needs to go somewhere.
The air of sensual freedom doesn’t last. “Be seen with young men,” warns Houston’s father, played by Clarke Peters, who wrests control of the empire once his daughter’s first album explodes in 1985. This was no time for coming out and staying on top, in the eyes of the media and certainly in the eyes of Houston’s immediate family. (Tamara Tunie plays Cissy, whose mantra for her daughter’s attack on a song is a simple but difficult: “head. heart. gut.”)
A sexually fluid superstar with deep roots in Christianity and the bad luck of falling prey to manipulators and users within her family circle never had a fighting chance at inner peace. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” manages to suggest some nuance and ambiguity in Houston’s key relationships, and within her own ambitions.
The actors and director Lemmons accomplish what the screenplay does only partially: make us believe the circumstances and the behavior. Ashton Sanders’ Bobby Brown gives us the weasel but also the man. In a role slightly larger than required, I think, Arista legend Davis has the bonus of being played by ever-wry, ever-winning Stanley Tucci.
In the end it is Ackie’s show. If there’s anything missing from her idea of Houston, it’s the tension between the image — “the first Black white-friendly all-American girl,” as she calls herself at one point — and the fervent, family-bound, dutiful yet drug-addled performance beast, who toured ‘til she dropped, very nearly. For all that, Ackie has a light touch, and a convincing handle on every stage of the life she’s depicting.
McCarten got an Oscar nomination for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which was a pretty badly written, directed and edited biopic, but it made nearly a billion dollars worldwide because people like Freddie Mercury and Rami Malek did a nice job with him. I’m not sure audiences care a lot about quality in their showbiz sagas as long as the music’s there and they can sing along with it, or at least remember what it meant to them the first time they heard it.
“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” culminates with Houston’s walloping medley, at the 1994 American Music Awards,” of “I Loves You, Porgy” (from “Porgy and Bess”), “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” (from “Dreamgirls”) and “I Have Nothing” (from “The Bodyguard”). The movie’s two-hour, 20-minute running time, not counting end credits, is what it is because we hear and see several of Houston’s performance scenes in full, or close to full. I appreciate that. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” easily twice the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” was, takes its time where it should.
Another way to put it: It’s good.
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'WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY'
3 stars (out of 4)
Rating: PG-13 (for strong drug content, some strong language, smoking and suggestive references)
Running time: 2:26
How to watch: In theaters Friday
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