Starring:
Distributor: Rialto Films
Runtime: 120 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2018
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Most audiences will realise that Whitney is singer, Whitney Houston.
Interesting to note and for audiences to see, there have been two feature-links documentaries on Whitney Huston within the last two years, both directed by British documentary filmmakers, Nick Broomfield, Whitney: Can I Be Me, and now from Kevin MacDonald, Whitney.
Both films are powerful in their way, offering a portrait of the singer, considerable amount of background of her growing up in New Jersey, her singer mother, her father who left but acted as her manager, stealing from her and then suing her for millions. And there are interviews with her two brothers, their wives and other relations. There are visual images of her close friend, Robin, but no interview. As might be expected, there are some interviews with Bobby Brown, her husband, but he is very restrained and limited in what he will say (more from him in the Broomfield film). Significant in Whitney Huston’s life was her mother, her career as a singer, her mother investing energy into her daughter’s career and her daughter then moving against her.
Audiences may well be delighted with the amount of performance of songs by Whitney Huston throughout this film, quickly establishing the power of her voice, in church choirs, singing publicly, on television, her rapid rise with her topping the charts so often, her tours in the US and beyond (and a reminder that she was the first American singer to tour post-apartheid South Africa and meeting Nelson Mandela).
There is commentary on her breakthrough performance in the film, The Bodyguard, her comments, scenes photographed on sets, comment from Kevin Costner, her co-star. While the film and its song, I Will Always Love You, moved her to the realm of star power, almost immediately, there were tensions in her marriage, Bobby Brown not having the success of his wife, a succession of infidelities, press interviews and probings.
This film does not necessarily explain Whitney Huston’s use of and reliance on drugs and her moving to addiction. It offers the information, the facts becoming public, harsh reactions, her attempts at rehabilitation, even filming another movie, Sparkle, in 2011-12. However, she was just a shadow of herself in these years, disappearing, then going on tours and people walking out of concerts demanding their money back.
The film gives some background to her relationships, with agents, managers, PR personnel who speak favourably of her but with great regrets about what happened to her. Particularly tragic is the story of her daughter, whom she took on stage with her when she was little, but then neglected, the daughter becoming addicted and dying at the age of 22.
As with so many stories of talented people, this is a story of sadness despite achievement, a powerful life with decline and regrets.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
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