Whitney is a fairly misleading title for Lifetime’s new Whitney Houston biopic, which debuts on Saturday 17 January at 8pm ET. It should probably be called Whitney and Bobby: The First Five Years, if we’re going for accuracy, or Whitney and Bobby: Before It All Went to Shit, if we’re trying to be arch.
Lifetime has a bit of a cottage industry making these lackluster biographical movies of celebrities who died before their time (recent editions include Brittany Murphy and Aaliyah). This one is no different other than the blockbuster talent it has behind the camera. Whitney is the directorial debut for Angela Bassett, a woman more famous for her relationship with Tina Turner (she played her in the biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It) than she is for hers with Whitney Houston.
Bassett’s involvement is really the only thing that makes this stand out from all the other hack jobs that Lifetime has done. Like so many other movies on the channel this one features inexpensive sets (Bobby and Whitney’s house looks like it was on loan from an episode of Miami Vice and hasn’t been really kept up since it went off the air in 1989), cheesy dialogue, and costumes that are ridiculous if not period accurate.
Whitney tells the story of Houston and Bobby Brown from the time when they met at the Soul Train awards until five years later, after their wedding, the birth of their daughter, and Brown’s first stint in rehab. Bassett told the press this is a love story, but it’s one whose tragic consequences are basically ignored. Sure, we see Whitney smoke cigarettes and do some lines in her bathroom, but the story ends before their lives really get dark, with the diminished careers, the Bravo television show, the “show me the receipts” interview with Diane Sawyer, Whitney’s failed comebacks, the couple’s divorce, and Whitney’s eventual drug-related death.
That the scenes are mostly stagnant, featuring lots of two-handers between either Whitney and Bobby or one of the duo and other characters is not shocking. That’s what we’ve come to expect from these Lifetime movies – lots and lots of talking. What is slightly shocking is the number of sex scenes (and even the top half of a butt).
Most shocking of all is how well Bobby Brown comes off in the whole affair. He’s shown to be the good guy, never touching drugs and always doing right by his kids. Sure he cheats a few times and gets drunk, but then he goes to rehab to try to fix it all. Now, I wasn’t inside the relationship so I don’t know what happened, but just based on media coverage and their old reality show, it’s hard to say he’s as blameless as he comes off here.
Wait, I was wrong. The most shocking thing about the movie is that they shelled out for the rights to a handful of Houston’s songs, sung with stunning fidelity by dance diva Deborah Cox. One of the best revelations of the movie is remembering just how remarkable these songs were. They’re the best thing about the whole movie, even if they aren’t even the real thing.
Former America’s Next Top Model contestant Yaya DaCosta is rather good as Houston. She has Houston’s tone and mannerisms down and even looks a little bit like the star. She isn’t given much to work with, but elevates the bland material to something far better than it deserves. Arlen Escarpeta isn’t nearly as good as Brown, though he serviceably delivers his lines, which isn’t guaranteed in an enterprise like this one.
It’s sad that Whitney doesn’t focus on all of Whitney and instead tries to paint a rosy picture. But that doesn’t mean this special isn’t without its tawdry appeals. Lifetime is airing a special, Beyond the Headlines: Whitney Houston, immediately following the premiere featuring interviews with Houston’s friends and family. However, Access Hollywood has scored an interview with Brown himself, also airing at 10pm ET on Saturday, in competition.
Perhaps Lifetime couldn’t put up enough money to get Brown interested but Access Hollywood could. That just goes to show that, even when it comes to Bobby Brown, it’s only Whitney that still matters. If only we had a movie that honors her memory as well as her music does on its own.
