I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022) Review

A look into the life and music of the legendary singer Whitney Houston and the battling of her demons which lead to her untimely death.

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*Original Title – Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody

The film explores the life of Whitney Houston from when she was 16 years old and performing on stage with her mother Cissy, mainly as a backing singer but given her unbelievable talent it wasn’t long until she put centre stage and with Clive Davis in attendance he quickly signs her up for a record deal. A rather unique contract though meaning if he left the label then she would go with him, he warns her early on that he will do everything for her in terms of music and available all times of day and night in that respect but he did not want to know anything about her private life.

I have to admit I really wasn’t sure what to expect within that relationship but quite frankly it felt so pure and that he really did want to make her a star. I loved the scenes of selecting the songs and the process they went through to find the right music. But then how Whitney would make it her own, especially when she picked some songs that surprised him, hearing how they were on the tape and how she adapted them with a different kind of emotion was truly special.

I was very pleased that in terms of the music and the now iconic songs that this was put across in a fantastic manner within the film and I enjoyed those parts very much. I guess that could have something to do with the fact that Stanley Tucci was in those scenes and let’s face it he is a joy of an actor to watch.

Obviously it was never going to be easy to watch though with the drug use, considering we already knew the ending to her story. I guess it was handled within different scenes in the best possible way, as no good light to be able to place any of it in. I think it does raise the questions on how and why has this happened to so many artists within the music industry and something we see over and over again within these biopic films. The fact that it ended so utterly tragically for Houston makes it even more heartbreaking, one of the greatest voices of not only her generation but any generation.

I really did want to love this film as let’s face it Whitney Houston is one of the greatest artists of all time and having her life on screen should have been such a magical experience but a lot of the film falls short from that. I had to actually stop it a few times to google things to find out how true it was, that relationship with Robyn as I certainly was not expecting that in the opening couple of scenes. Overall, it was decent enough but Naomi Ackie didn’t really look like Houston which is something that is usually done better in this type of film. Surely the closing scene would have been better with archive footage of that legendary medley?