This movie left me disappointed. It didn't catch my heart.
It's just a loose concatenation of tinges of episodes in her life that hardly brings any true emotional moment to life.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody lacks story-telling and continuity to the most.
There's not a single episode in the movie that's handled with longer than a minute or two. Many people suddenly appearing are not getting introduced. Many times you wonder: "Who is this new other person she's now talking to all of a sudden?" or "What has happened causing this scene? Did I miss something?"
Just a few examples (nothing to spoil about):
° Whitney signs her first contract. Cut. She listens to a number of tapes at her producers', selects one of the songs, convincingly claiming: "I'll add a hook to it". Cut. (And that's all. We don't get to see how she actually does "add a hook" to the song.) Next scene: We get to see a 1:1 copy of the music video.
So, we never see her working creatively in the studio. She never performs any musical effort in the movie.
° Whitney's producer is showing her the Bodyguard script. Cut. She sits in a beedroom scene, getting her hair done, walks to the window and breaks down. Cut. She's lying in a hospital, crying. Her husband's telling her that they will be giving birth to another child. Cut.
You wonder: Huh?!? They actually had been expecting a child? When did that happen?
° Whitney is sent to the rehab. Cut. We see her swimming with her daughter in a swimming pool, being remotely observed. Cut. End of story.
You wonder: So, that's how detox therapy actually works?? You just swim two lanes and that's it?
The only thing that is been depicted in full length are some of her live gigs. But when these are depicted, the camera is so close to her, it's almost in front of her nose.
Which brings me to the next bad part in the movie:
I understand it's hard to mimic a life performance that's been originally recorded in hi-res and been seen hundred times before. However, when the camera is so close to the singer's face, then - please - take better care of lip-syncing! - You should have done better! A cut takes usually 5 - 10 seconds. It shouldn't be too much of a demand to expect that Naomi Ackie practices the singing sequences again and again, until she fully got them. And only after that, they should have shot the scene again and again, until it fits! Plus, Naomi forgot to mimic Whitney's classic tongue vibrato. Naomi's tongue was stiff as a whale when we heard Whitney singing a vibrato.
Another thing:
While we've been listening to Whitney's original voice recordings, the instruments have been re-recorded to be rather dull and in the background. So many times you can see musicians who are playing an instrument that's actually not to hear in the mix.
So, as I stated in the beginning of my review, this wasn't a well-done movie. In contrast to Bohemian Rhapsody it didn't convey any emotion. It was just a loose, boring concatenation of scenes.
It's just a loose concatenation of tinges of episodes in her life that hardly brings any true emotional moment to life.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody lacks story-telling and continuity to the most.
There's not a single episode in the movie that's handled with longer than a minute or two. Many people suddenly appearing are not getting introduced. Many times you wonder: "Who is this new other person she's now talking to all of a sudden?" or "What has happened causing this scene? Did I miss something?"
Just a few examples (nothing to spoil about):
° Whitney signs her first contract. Cut. She listens to a number of tapes at her producers', selects one of the songs, convincingly claiming: "I'll add a hook to it". Cut. (And that's all. We don't get to see how she actually does "add a hook" to the song.) Next scene: We get to see a 1:1 copy of the music video.
So, we never see her working creatively in the studio. She never performs any musical effort in the movie.
° Whitney's producer is showing her the Bodyguard script. Cut. She sits in a beedroom scene, getting her hair done, walks to the window and breaks down. Cut. She's lying in a hospital, crying. Her husband's telling her that they will be giving birth to another child. Cut.
You wonder: Huh?!? They actually had been expecting a child? When did that happen?
° Whitney is sent to the rehab. Cut. We see her swimming with her daughter in a swimming pool, being remotely observed. Cut. End of story.
You wonder: So, that's how detox therapy actually works?? You just swim two lanes and that's it?
The only thing that is been depicted in full length are some of her live gigs. But when these are depicted, the camera is so close to her, it's almost in front of her nose.
Which brings me to the next bad part in the movie:
I understand it's hard to mimic a life performance that's been originally recorded in hi-res and been seen hundred times before. However, when the camera is so close to the singer's face, then - please - take better care of lip-syncing! - You should have done better! A cut takes usually 5 - 10 seconds. It shouldn't be too much of a demand to expect that Naomi Ackie practices the singing sequences again and again, until she fully got them. And only after that, they should have shot the scene again and again, until it fits! Plus, Naomi forgot to mimic Whitney's classic tongue vibrato. Naomi's tongue was stiff as a whale when we heard Whitney singing a vibrato.
Another thing:
While we've been listening to Whitney's original voice recordings, the instruments have been re-recorded to be rather dull and in the background. So many times you can see musicians who are playing an instrument that's actually not to hear in the mix.
So, as I stated in the beginning of my review, this wasn't a well-done movie. In contrast to Bohemian Rhapsody it didn't convey any emotion. It was just a loose, boring concatenation of scenes.