Michael Jackson was one of those mega-stars you either loved
or hated. Loved because of the music he gave to more than one generation, hated
because of the allegations of inappropriate behavior behind the scenes. What
this film does is attempt to paint a portrait of him as a loving family man
concerned more about his children than anything else.
The film is told through the eyes of Bill Whitfield (Chad
Coleman) and based on the book he wrote. Whitfield was hired as personal
protection for Jackson and his family when they returned to the U.S. Jackson
and his children returned to the country after having move to Bahrain. With his
Neverland estate a place of bad memories the family moves into a temporary home
in Las Vegas. Searching for someone to trust the job of relaying the family to
the home becomes a permanent protection job for Whitfield.
The movie progresses with the quirks of Jackson touched on
but never too in depth with most being left out altogether. Instead we’re
presented with a stream of employees who eventually all fail him, some because
of self-interest and others because of his own issues. The main one of those is
his unwillingness to return to work even though his financial situation is in
decline due to his enormous legal woes and spending habits.
As seen through the eyes of Whitfield and his second in
command Javon Beard (Sam Adegoke) Jackson is nothing more than a man who wants
the best for his children, struggling with the fame he created that now
intrudes upon them all. At the same time Jackson comes off as childlike in his
own right. While the movie never talks about it, one has to assume that not
having the opportunity to truly have a childhood of his own, Jackson struggled
with that while trying to be a parent at the same time.
The film follows two years in the life of Jackson, from his
return to this country through his death. Told in flashbacks while prosecutors
interview Whitfield and Javon, it allows them to comment on things as much as
provide stories of those two years. What it doesn’t do is give any depth to the
story of what happened. Most all is puff pieces depicting Jackson in the most
flattering way possible.
Coleman and Adegoke do the best they can with their performances
here making both men very credible. The same can’t be said for Navi as Jackson.
A professional Jackson impersonator his acting skills are subpar level. It’s
apparent he’s had surgery to appear like Jackson and that seems to have made
his facial muscles unable to allow him to speak properly at times or to display
any emotions other than full on sad or smile. The end result is to make him as
eerie to watch as Jackson became after numerous plastic surgery mishaps.
Coming from Lifetime Channel I wasn’t expecting much from
this movie and the end result matched my expectations. Little is learned of
Jackson by the end of the film and rather than take a balanced look at the man
the reverence with which he is treated here is palpable.
Michael Jackson was not a simple person to understand and no
biographical film will ever find a way of peeling back the onion like layers of
his life and his mind. When you take a man who was robbed of a normal
childhood, whose father was abusive, whose brothers (according to at least one
scene in this film) treated him poorly, who was surrounded by sycophants and
users and who dreamed of little more than a normal life while encouraged by
those around him to live abnormally you begin to realize no simple film will do
him justice. This one does less than that attempting to glorify him instead. Worse
yet it does so in the most bland way possible.
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