Whitney Houston Biopic- Lukewarm at Best

Bobby Brown is an award winning singer.

Bobby Brown is a great dancer.

Bobby Brown doesn’t take anyone’s flak (even Whitney Houston).

Bobby Brown is a caring person.

Bobby Brown is fantastic in bed.

Bobby Brown is a good father.

Bobby Brown is a nice person.

Bobby Brown did not support his ex-wife’s drug use.

Bobby Brown is INNOCENT.

Clive Davis is EVIL.

Bobby Brown is fantastic in bed.

Bobby Brown did all he could to heal his childhood trauma and get off drugs.

Bobby Brown is fantastic in bed.

Bobby Brown is fantastic in bed.

Bobby Brown is fantastic in bed.

Beyond being a testimonial to all the good that is in Bobby Brown and how he tried to help Whitney, this movie is actually one of the least interesting tv movies I've ever seen.

In stark contrast to the Aaliyah biopic, there is nothing memorable about this movie. It is a vanilla perspective on one of the most interesting and tumultuous “odd couples” in Hollywood history.

Prominently featured is Bobby Brown, as essentially a good boy in a bad man’s body, endorsed by none other than the king of sensitivity, Babyface.

I almost suspect that Lifetime went out of its way to make this production as inoffensive as possible, while squeezing out every bit of heart this story could have had. With the exception of numerous raunchy sex scenes that I could have done without.

Whitney’s family is shown as an overbearing mob, suffocating her personally and emotionally out of “love”. Distressed by her engagement, they do everything they can to discourage the marriage. A scene between Bobby and Whitney suggests that they are both overburdened from having to care for their families financial needs. Mostly everyone wears gold crosses like some talisman as they seem to jockey for control. The scenes with Clive Davis are typical of what one expects from a music executive who is losing a substantial client. However, his confrontation with Bobby Brown was strangely placid, like a rich grandfather forced to discipline a disobedient grandchild- the age difference between them is as deliberately gaping as possible.

The one interesting camera move is the close-up of Bobby’s vengeful face in the nightclub, glaring at Whitney as she dances the night away, oblivious to his presence.

There are far too many lengthy singing interludes that add nothing to the story. We KNOW that Whitney Houston can sing. While Deborah Cox does a good job covering Whitney, there was simply no need for that much singing. This was not a musical.

If this was supposed to be a fairy tale gone wrong then yes, it did.  The hero and wronged party in this story is Bobby. The evil queen is Whitney, surrounded by her minions embodied in the form of her best friend/manager and her bourgeois family members. There is no happily ever after. There is not even a happy anything, since the movie ends on as sad a tone as it can manage. Alone on stage, Whitney sadly sings “I Will Always Love You” while Bobby, alone offstage, unhappily watches her.

It suggests doom to come and we all know that it does twofold, when the marriage ended 15 years later and Whitney’s untimely demise in 2012.

For some reason, Whitney didn’t want to stop taking drugs, as one of the final scenes suggests, showing her bedroom drawer practically overflowing with cocaine. But we don’t know why.

So the controversial production turned out to be a timid reenactment of a marriage gone wrong. A couple of alcohol or drug induced fights not between junkies, but between two talented people, hoping for love and finding only empty disappointment, as will the audience who watches this film.

Into the Woods: A Melange Of Stories Makes a Magic Musical Movie for the Middle-Aged

Fairy tale purists like the formula. We grew up on in it and like to quote the memorized opening and closing of every fairy tale, “Once Upon a Time….happily ever after” like Scripture. But "Into The Woods" delights in un-doing the formula and spiking it with something a little stronger and darker.

I didn’t see the musical, but several fellow filmgoers did and applauded after each musical number as if they were on Broadway. For the rest of the audience, there was plenty of wonder and interest in this latest adult tribute to “un-happily ever after.”

Similar to several other re-vamped fairy tale movies (Hoodwinked, Unhappily Ever After, Enchanted) “Into the Woods” deconstructs a fairy tale by giving us more facts than fiction. Every character develops distinct personalities, including the witch. For those of you who have read my earlier blogs, you know that I am also a witch purist and believe that witches are only evil and don’t deserve a backstory.

Red Riding Hood is a fresh-mouthed girl, The Wolf is perverse, Cinderella is conflicted, Prince Charming is a fornicator, Jack is as dumb as they come (and abused), The Baker and his wife are a modern couple with modern problems like infertility and typical young couple power struggles. Rapunzel, well her mother is the witch so… And the Witch is trying to overcome her own failings and come to terms with herself as a mother by not becoming her own mother.  In essence, the characters represent a microcosm of humanity instead of being standards of fairy tale perfection. This transition will confuse children and sadly, remind adults of our own un-fairy tale like lives. However, the catchy tunes- anthems of adult angst -soon make you forget your troubles as you start humming along.

All these stories are interwoven with the Witch being at the epicenter of the characters eventual convergence. These are also not the Disney fairy tales most of us grew up with; they incorporate some of the older, more medieval versions- which are in print so you can read up on why Cinderella spends so much time at her mother’s grave and why her stepsisters get their parts amputated.

The action moves at a decent pace so everyone can keep up with the story, which is somewhat complicated and absolutely convoluted.But I won’t spoil that for you.

The movie commits several of the same sins it chides the fairy tale world for. Unexplained things just happen. The giant is still a big, dumb giant. Several of the characters just sort of…die. I don’t mind the unexplained, weird, and wonderful. That’s what makes fairy tales and musicals great. But there is an apparent visual struggle between trying to logically explain fairy tale events while creating a few more.  

The singing is great, though a little tinny at times, similar to Hugh Jackman’s vocal performance in Les Mis. However, even Johnny Depp’s voice sounds very good. Meryl Streep hits the notes. Unlike Les Mis, the singing voices of these actors seem much more appropriate for an adapted Broadway musical. The casting is not just a bunch of celebrities straining their voices. They pull it off.

The cinematography is more eerie than fantastical, more weird, than wonderful. Defensibly, most of the movie does take place in the woods so I guess the darker lighting and mood are justified. You become totally immersed into a slightly sinister world where unfortunately, the trees don’t move or give advice. Still, there is more than enough of that “woods feel” to hint that it’s not a good place to be.  The CGI is good, not great. No biddidi-bobbodi-boo for Cinderella and she has to run home from the ball (yes, on foot).

While I loved the music and seeing some familiar actors in interesting roles, I still feel ambivalent about the cynical turn on fairy tales. Kids today are being robbed of a bit of innocence. Adults are plunged into stories that mirror sad realities instead of being transported into a dreamiverse. I’m not sure that there needs to be a moral dilemma about ambushing and killing a greedy giant or the fact that the witch is clearly to blame! Witches are just evil. Hopefully, at some point, Hollywood gets the memo.

Into the Woods is a great movie production with plenty of applause worthy moments. There is plenty of fun in it, but stops short of pure exuberance. I’m amazed at how these vastly different stories were believably intertwined, but it makes the plot almost too busy as if the writer(s) wanted the challenge of layering a bunch of stories just because.

Into the Woods is a foot-tapping, tongue-in-cheek, upscale drama for the discriminating fairy tale reader. Mirth mixes with reality to produce an adult-friendly bedtime story that you can hum.