Whitney (2015)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning A TV dramatisation of the late singer Whitney Houston (Yaya DaCosta) and her tumultuous marriage to r n' b star Bobby Brown (Arlen Escarpeta.) The pair embarked on an excessive, drug fuelled party lifestyle, where accusations were tossed either way about who was responsible and this aims to shine an equal light on both sides.A grimly unfortunate consequence of those famous passing is a chance to use their death to cash in, and exploit it by whipping up as much sensationalism as possible. Although arriving a few years after Houston's passing, this TV biopic still feels a little cheap and low grade in it's directions.This basically has Hallmark written all over it, the type of thing certain people can lie back, and have a box of chocolates and a box of Kleenex to best enjoy. It is what it is, no more and no less, although it has to be said DaCosta's lead performance as Whitney has a certain ring of truth to it, but feels overboard and excessive even by what were her wild standards. **

Is Angela Basset screwing Bobby Brown? Biography? The Enquirer has more depth. WHo knew? All these years, poor bobby... I totally believed he would have always said no to any drug-because he's seen it before- and It only ended up down a bad road. I was so surprised to learn how much he had to say NO to drugs and look after his coked out lady. What a guy. Whitney snorted and abused drugs their entire marriage. He just held the purse...so to speak. I was so stimulated by the riveting acting and believable dialog that I did dishes,and started laundry, fed the lizard. I came back 53 minutes later to,again, Whitney,snorting something and poor bobby sipping only 3.2 beers...unloved,unnoticed and misunderstood. His own talent denied. should have titled this...2 hours of Whitney snorting,Bobby drinking and loving unconditionally. All this time,i thought he was sweaty,erratic and grinding his teeth for other reasons. I stand corrected.

Who doesn't love Whitney Houston? We have all enjoyed her music, video's, and acting performances. It could honestly be said there was a time she was both the best actress and singer of the moment. This movie is controversial at best and completely challenges our belief that bad boy Bobby Brown corrupted an angelic Whitney Houston. Is it possible it was all smoking mirrors and Bobby Brown was actually a much better man than the press gave him credit for, was he the one corrupted and belittled? For those of you that lived through the era, Bobby Brown was larger than life, 1st in the highly successful boy band, New Edition, and as a solo singer song writer. Hits like "My Prerogative" and "Every Little Step" were on the radio 24/7 and the Video's were captivating. What could he have become if his path hadn't crossed with the great Whitney Houston?Hopefully this movie is part 1 in what should be a miniseries.

I have a always been a fan of Lifetime's low budget biopics - they aren't meant to be great - but this movie about Whitney Houston was just awful. The actress playing Whitney gave a really bad performance - her crying scene after she had a miscarriage was laughable. The writers of this movie expect us to believe that Bobby Brown was some innocent victim who doesn't use cocaine and turns down groupies. Meanwhile Whitney is portrayed as an insecure party girl who goes crazy on drugs. They also chose to ignore the stories about Whitney's lesbian romance with her assistant Robin. Besides the bad writing and acting the real problem was there were way too many full length musical numbers. How can you make a movie about a legendary singer like Whitney Houston and then use someone another woman's voice.