Whitney Movie Review: Telling the Hard Truth

     The social media networks went ablaze with personal reviews and opinions after the original airing of the Lifetime movie Whitney on January 17th of this year. Renowned actress and co-star of the late Whitney Houston in Waiting to Exhale, Angela Bassett, debuted her directing skills in the Lifetime Network movie that depicts the upside and downward spiral of Whitney Houston’s music career and relationship with R&B singer and songwriter Bobby Brown. As the director of the film, Angela received a great deal of criticism and backlash for the portrayal of Whitney Houston, including some choice words from the late singer’s sister-in-law, Pat Houston.  Whitney’s sister by marriage posted a full comment expressing her opinion about the film on whitneyhouston.com, but in her statement she questions as to why she, her husband, Whitney’s mother or daughter were not contacted and calls the film and the timing of its release “a disappointment” and “creative pursuit at the expense of the integrity of such an iconic woman”. From the posts on social media websites that I read, there are many others who shared in Pat Houston’s sentiments. 

      I, like many others, was a fan of the late Whitney Houston and lover of her angelic voice, but as much as I adored the singer I am an even bigger fan and advocate for the unadulterated truth. So with no offense intended, the full on truth is what I plan to give in this article. Warning: if cold hard truth is something you cannot handle, you should probably stop reading at this point but I thank you for viewing up to now. 

Pat Houston (L), Bobby Kristina Houston-Brown (R)

Photo:Christopher Polk/Billboards 2012/Getty Images for ABC

First, I want to start by destroying Pat Houston’s comments. It is not unknown that the Houston family did not participate in the making of Angela Bassett’s film by choice, so I’m confused as to why Pat thinks the family (not including widower Bobby Brown coincidentally) would be contacted, especially her who is just an in-law. I also noticed that Pat did not include Whitney’s older brother, Michael, in the list of family who she believes should have received a courtesy call. Could this possibly be intentional due to the fact that he was the one who admittedly introduced the star to drug use. Second, I saw nothing in the film that portrayed Whitney in a manner that the public did not already know about prior to her death, other than the widely opinionated idea that the singer’s husband was the one who started her on drugs. I can completely understand that when a loved one is lost most only want to remember the good about the person, but a person’s passing does not change the truth so I see no need to criticize Angela Bassett’s work just because some can’t handle that fact. Third, it is not uncommon for films and documentaries about a deceased celebrity to be made and/or aired around the anniversary of the death as a remembrance of or to pay homage to the person; what time would be better or make more sense? Every family has its issues and secrets, but from Pat Houston’s comments I can only devise that she is either seeking her 15 minutes of fame (cause who is she or who really cares about her opinion as an in-law whose only claim to fame is marrying a non-famous Houston) or is still very much in denial about the singer/actress’s drug addiction. 

Yaya DaCosta and Arlen Escarpeta

As for the movie, I first want to point out the excellent job Yaya DaCosta, America’s Next Top Model season 3 runner-up, and Arlen Escarpeta, Into the Storm co-star, did playing the roles of their respective characters. Although I initially criticized the casting choices due to the actors not resembling their characters enough, as I continued to watch the film I soon was able to understand why these two actors where chosen for the roles. Yaya, who plays Whitney Houston, did and excellent job capturing Whitney’s essence: the way Whitney would throw her head back when she laughed sometimes, her hand gestures, dance movements, and facial expressions; and when I would look away from the screen, I could hear the same sweet and husky tone in Yaya’s voice that Whitney had in hers. Arlen, much like Bobby Brown, also did justice to his character supporting his Whitney Houston counterpart. It wasn’t long into the movie that the acting skills mixed with the shared physical features of the actors to their characters made me forget that I was not seeing the actual Whitney and Bobby, which is exactly what the job of an actor is, so kudos to them both. 

This last portion may be a hard pill to swallow for many, but if the truth is to be told it should be the whole truth and as fans we owe it to Whitney to own up to our role in her demise. As the public, we knew Whitney Houston the artist; Whitney Houston the artist was created and molded for two years by her record label before being introduced to us. Many were unsure of the singer after the initial release of her self-titled debut album in February of 1985 (I was only four years  old and I can still vaguely remember seeing comedy skits picking at the young singer), but her undeniable voice won us over and we quickly made her our R&B/Pop princess. We put Whitney Houston the artist on a pedestal because of her immaculate voice before we even knew Whitney the person. As fans, we held Whitney in a high regard and held her to high expectations which can be stressful for any person, but probably even more so for a young woman whose life is constantly in the spotlight and under a microscope. Whitney met and fell in love with a man who came to know her and love her for more than just the artist that we knew her to be and I doubt she would have fallen in love with someone she had absolutely nothing in common with. We stereotyped both Whitney and Bobby Brown and we, much like Whitney’s family, decided he was not good enough for her, they should not be together, and blamed Bobby for Whitney’s drug use. Whitney Houston was not only a grown woman who knew what she was doing, but she was also six years Bobby’s senior and had been around the music industry much longer than Bobby, so to blame him for Whitney’s choices is somewhat ridiculous and possibly an effort to transfer our own guilt as her fans. We were the ones who badmouthed her marriage, which any person who is married can testify that being married is hard enough without the added stress of being famous or having the marriage scrutinized by loved ones as well as strangers. We were the ones who would not accept and support Whitney as long as she was married to Bobby. And we, her fans, were the ones who only loved her for her voice instead of for the woman she actually was. We, her so-called fans, put an added stress on Whitney that she could not bare and so she turned to her vice of choice to cope with the pain of being one of the most adored yet unaccepted and unloved singers of our time. We expected Whitney to be as perfect as her voice was and, in my own opinion, she knew she wasn’t and her feelings surrounding that is what ultimately perpetuated her drug addiction. 

So in conclusion I say only this: I pray you rest in peace Whitney and receive all the love in heaven that you didn’t get here on Earth.