I had pretty low expectations going in to see the Michael Jackson movie. The big, huge movie release was on Wednesday and it was now Sunday and I haven’t read any reviews, haven’t heard any feedback (other than Liz Taylor raving about it on Twitter) and that generally spells bad news.
It was even worse that, when we got to the theater at 6 PM there were no lines and no crowds waiting to get inside. But it may just have been too early…
At 6:30 we headed in and the theater was mostly empty. Slowly though, people started showing up and by 7 there was a good crowd although still not what I would call a full house.
And then the technical difficulties started. After about half an hour of tinkering with the projector, the management of the place decided to move everyone into a different theater because, clearly, the problem could not be solved.
We almost gave up on seeing the movie - most people just asked for a refund and left - but finally sat down in the “8 o’clock theater” and after another what seemed like a half hour of coming attractions, the movie started.
Now this was basically a cut of footage from a series of rehearsals over a period of a few months (from April to June, I believe) and it’s a pretty amazing thing in itself that people would sit for two hours and watch someone’s rehearsals. But Kenny Ortega - who clearly had a very personal and close relationship with Michael - has an uncanny ability to highlight the key moments of this unfinished project and bring to life a very real, humane, kind and likeable Jackson.
The most touching thing to me was the way the movie evokes Michael through the eyes of others. His carefully selected dancers are in awe of him and - in a series of interviews done right after they were selected to be part of the “lead dancers” group - they spill their guts and let their emotions have the best of them while talking about what being on the same stage with Michael means to them. It is very honest and quite touching.
MJ’s stage performance is clearly not the same as it would have been had he been performing in front of hundreds of thousands. Michael is very leisurely even though he is an amazing professional and takes all the little moves very seriously. But his movements are somewhat unfinished: his knees and elbows are soft all the time and he never fully extends his arms and legs like the dancers around him do.
He does seem to be enjoying singing and dancing - even if his performance appears to be internalized. He closes his eyes and sort of moves for himself every once in a while. He is painfully thin and, by the way, can anyone tell me what is the deal with his hands? They seem disproportionally large compared to the rest of him. It was very distracting, especially since I don’t remember ever noticing that before about him.
In any event, it’s amazing to see how MJ works with the musicians, the dancers, the singers: he’s very hands-on and very careful to not offend anyone when asking for more from the musicians or expressing dissatisfaction with something. If he had his “diva” moments, they are not in this movie.
The highlight of the show for me was his performance with this guitar chick (Orianthi something - definitely in need of a name change) who rocked Eddie Van Halen’s solo from “Beat It” and who is as hot as she is talented. I hope she doesn’t get lost and that she gets a good record deal out of this whole thing.
All in all, it’s good, fun, sweet, intense and it makes you wish, really, really wish that this was indeed what Michael Jackson was like. And then it makes you wish he could have lived a little bit more as THIS Michael and not what we saw in the past years of his life.