By Melissa Antoinette Garza
To be honest, had this Lifetime Original been directed by anyone other than Angela Bassett, I wouldn’t have watched. I was never a big Whitney Houston fan. From the interviews I saw, I thought she was pretentious at times and a mess at others. I often enjoyed the Mad TV sketches of Debra Wilson’s Whitney impression. In fact, I was more familiar with the sketches of Wilson than of Houston herself.
That said, I have always admired Ms. Bassett’s unparalleled talent. Ever since her portrayal of the legendary Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), I was glued to her work. Even during movies that were lackluster, Bassett always brought her A game and if for nothing else, her presence was always worth watching. Supernova (2000) is a perfect example. The movie itself was less than stellar, but Bassett and James Spader (who is fantastic in his own right) made the film a must-see for me and one I didn’t regret watching.
I didn’t know about Bassett’s latest venture with Whitney until about a week before it aired. I started seeing articles about Whitney’s family protesting the movie. It made me wonder what angle the production was going with. I figured Bassett would be very respectful as I always heard the two got along during the filming of Waiting to Exhale (1995) so I couldn’t imagine a Mommie Dearest (1981) style indictment of the icon.
The movie opens at the Soul Train award where Bobby Brown meets Whitney. It follows their tumultuous relationship. Whitney’s decent into addiction and Bobby’s insecurity standing in Whitney’s shadow.
Overall, it was a really interesting film that humanized Whitney Houston. Instead of just the rambling addicted singer we rooted to get well, she was a woman who suffered a miscarriage at the height of her career. We see someone who is forced to tour right after giving birth despite her protests to stay home. We see her own insecurity as she worries about getting into a relationship with Brown, not because of his reputation, but because she wants the guarantee that everyone wants when they enter into a marriage – she wants the guarantee of forever. Even when Bobby cheats on her and she catches him, she can’t walk away. When Brown sees his friend shot in the head in front of him, he asks Whitney for help. She answers the phone during a concert and despite being taken aback, she immediately agrees to help and then goes back on stage forcing herself to perform.
Whether most of the movie was a realistic portrayal or filled with dramatizations of falsified events, I never felt more sympathetic to the singer’s ordeal or what she went through on a human level. I never once felt as though the film judged her drug abuse or used it as the catalyst for her downfall. If anything her drug abuse was gradual and was often used in the same manner as Elvis – to get on stage, even when she wanted to be home in bed crying. As her life worsened and as the expectations for her relationship with Brown were destroyed by their mutual actions and by sad events that seemed to follow him, she did turn to a substance that gave her temporary solace. I think anyone can understand that.
Yaya DaCosta did a phenomenal job showing people a side of Houston other than her untimely death and the messy few years that predated it. Respectfully, they didn’t bring up Bobby Brown’s reality show or the interview she did with Barbara Walter. This wasn’t critical of the superstar at all. It was a lovely and successful attempt to show her struggles as a person in the limelight who was too proud to admit she had a problem and too much in love to walk away from a relationship that was destructive.
I was always partial to Dolly Parton’s version of I Will Always Love You as I grew up with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and I adore Parton. I remember seeing The Bodyguard (1992) and was extremely disappointed. I just didn’t understand why (spoiler) the couple couldn’t be together at the end. Mind you, I saw that when I was 13 years old and haven’t seen it since. Regardless, Houston’s version of the number never hit my heart the way that Parton’s did. I just didn’t feel her emotion in it. Shockingly, in the last few minutes of this film, I teared up. It was the first time that I felt through DaCosta’s performance and Deborah Cox’s vocals, the passion of the song sang in the fashion Houston made more than famous.
I highly suggest viewing this. For those not watching because of the hurt feelings expressed by Houston’s family, I suggest reading Houston’s self-aggrandizing mother’s statements while she was on Oprah. Essentially, Houston’s mother said that Whitney learned everything from her and stole her style. I found the interview with Houston’s mother insulting. The Lifetime Movie, I found to be a respectful biopic and one that did nothing but endear the star to her fans even more.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10
