Mark Reviews Movies: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY

I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Sony Pictures Releasing

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 22, 2022

Director Kasi Lemmons' respectful but bland I Wanna Dance with Somebody presents Whitney Houston as a person who was never allowed to truly be herself. Anthony McCarten's screenplay begins with that fascinating hook but, unfortunately, takes it too far. There's no sense of who Houston really was or could have been in this movie, either.

Instead, it follows the usual trajectory of the fictionalized movie biography of a star who burns brightly, only to dim and finally fade away for whatever reason. The story here is more of a dramatized highlight reel than an actual narrative, with most of the highlights including or revolving around a song from Houston's extensive and accomplished catalogue. If anything, the movie serves as reminder of just how many popular and noteworthy songs Houston recorded—most of them notable because, well, Houston sang them.

There should, of course, be more to a biography than such things. When it comes to Houston's life—defined behind-the-scenes by addiction and a lot of pain—and death, one understands the hesitancy to dig too deeply, lest the result look like or become exploitation. Lemmons makes a clear, concerted effort to avoid that as much as possible. There are tasteful scenes suggesting but never directly portraying drug use, and despite a single news report about the deterioration of the singer's voice, we only ever hear Houston—and always Houston—at the height of her vocal prowess. The movie ends, not with the star's lonely and distressing death, but with what the filmmakers deem to be her greatest triumph as a performer.

Obviously, there's a lot to appreciate about how Lemmons handles the material, especially when it comes to what she doesn't show in this story. That still leaves us with an unfortunate disconnect: What doesn't happen in this story becomes more significant than what does.

At the beginning, there is some sense that we'll get to know Houston—or at least this movie's version of the singer—beyond the recording studio, stage, and her portrayal in the media. Naomi Ackie plays Whitney from around the age of 17 until moments before her death at the age of 48. It's a charismatic performance, even if the actor's role becomes increasingly thankless as it becomes mostly about trying to recreate Houston's presence on stage, while shooting music videos, and in the recording booth. Ackie does a fine job replicating the singer's physicality during those performance scenes, but she's let down by the script during the scenes between those.

We first meet Whitney singing at the head of the church choir, led by her mother Cissy (Tamara Tunie), who insists that her daughter has to know a melody before she can start playing with it. Whitney soon meets Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams), who will become her best friend, suggested lover, and, when the singer's career takes off, creative assistant. The business end of her career is handled by Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci), a record company executive who's actually a decent person and not a source of conflict, and Whitney's father John (Clarke Peters), who keeps seeing angles to cheat his daughter out of money even as he's dying in a hospital bed.

McCarten's screenplay shows some focus and, hence, promise at the start, because it dives into the character's background, her relationships, and the seemingly impossible expectations established by those closest to her. Whitney here has a lot to live up to, and once she signs on with Clive and his company, she begins to accomplish those goals and exceed those expectations. It's never, apparently, enough for some and, therefore, in her own mind, and along the way, she sacrifices part of her relationship with Robyn, gets into a watered-down version of a co-dependent relationship with Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders), and becomes more and more dependent on drugs.

The early attention to at least some level of detail leaves the movie once Whitney's career takes off, and we're essentially given the same scenes over and over again—albeit with a different song on the soundtrack at the time. There are montages galore—of rejecting and choosing songs from assorted demo tapes in Clive's office, of recording sessions for an album, of tour dates around the world. In between, conflict arises with and amongst Robyn, Bobby, John, and Cissy, but such moments are merely repetitive breaks between the songs.

Whitney's star keeps rising and rising, and even after her addiction begins to have a negative impact on her life and her singing ability and how the tabloid media presents her to the public, it's all about a comeback, how her talent is just being overlooked, or how everyone is misrepresenting her. It's easy to understand and even admire the filmmakers' reflex to be protective about the character of Whitney—and the real Houston by extension, obviously—because we all know how this story ends.

In doing so, though, the movie might miss more important points about addiction, and in sheltering Whitney from judgment and the possibility of exploiting a real tragedy, it's doing a disservice to the destructive nature of that disease. It's just another way that I Wanna Dance with Somebody overshadows any sense of a real person for the allure of a star and the mystery of a legend.

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