Watching the pop songstress’s life story is like listening to a greatest hits album, with just as little narrative coherence.
Despite clocking in at nearly 2½ hours, “I Wanna Dance” barely scratches the surface of its celestial subject and the figures in her orbit. If you have a favorite Houston performance, expect it to be immaculately re-created on-screen. The tabloid headlines that hounded her are dutifully addressed as well.
” and opening with a tease of a famed performance — in this case, Houston’s medley at the 1994 American Music Awards. After that, the story flashes back to 1983, to touch on Houston’s gospel-choir roots and tough-love tutelage from her mother, soul singer Cissy Houston , and it’s off to the races.Within 15 minutes, Whitney is inking her first record deal. A couple of scenes later, she’s wowing on “The Merv Griffin Show” and fully transformed into the chart-topping vocalist we all know.
The thin portrayals extend to the supporting cast. As new jack swing pioneer Bobby Brown, Houston’s husband for 14 turbulent years, Ashton Sanders strains to humanize a figure painted as comically insufferable. Stanley Tucci fares better as Clive Davis, imbuing Houston’s longtime record producer with his usual charm and warmth, though he does get saddled with some brutal exposition.
When “I Wanna Dance” poses the conflicts that complicated Houston’s livelihood, it’s almost as if the movie gets restless and hits “skip” mid-track. The film presents Houston and Robyn Crawford , her longtime friend and assistant, as young lovers driven apart by the singer’s public image — even recasting the song “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” as a symbol of Houston’s queer longing — before brushing that storyline aside.
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