Movie Review - Michael Jackson's This Is It - A King's Forever Encore, With Love Personnified

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW
Michael Jackson's This Is It

A King's Forever Encore, With Love Personnified
By Omar P.L. Moore / PopcornReel.com

Michael Jackson rehearsing on stage on June 23, 2009 during "Michael Jackson's This Is It".
Kenny Mazur for WireImage via AEG Live

"Michael Jackson's This Is It", directed by Kenny Ortega, offers not the routine assemblage of Michael Jackson music videos and short films, but an intimate and exclusive glimpse into the essence of the pop megastar's preparation and precision during rehearsals over four months last spring at The Staples Center in Los Angeles for the 50-date London tour that sadly never occurred. Mr. Ortega, with the help of four editors culls together over 100 hours of rehearsal footage and distills it down to two hours and one minute of humor, sadness, love and devotion, and it works.

The film departs from typical documentaries, effectively serving as an unfiltered, essentially cinema verite view of Mr. Jackson at work on stage where he was most comfortable. The Staples Center audience seating before the King of Pop is empty but Mr. Ortega, who also directed the prospective concert show, understands that moviegoers (and Michael Jackson fans) will fill that theatrical void.

"This Is It", which opened worldwide today for two weeks only, also resists an abundance of introspection from its leading man, allowing band members and crew to speak about Mr. Jackson and the process of shaping the This Is It concert show. This is the heart of Mr. Ortega's film -- the process of Mr. Jackson's extreme hard work, dedication, courtesy and professionalism, all done, as Mr. Jackson repeatedly says, "with love." In many ways the often riveting and deeply affecting rehearsals, obviously augmented by the still-fresh pain and sorrow of Mr. Jackson's untimely death last June, serve to instruct more valuably than the finished product and polish of countless Jackson concerts, short films and videos ever could.

The film smartly avoids being a self-mourning portrait and indulgence of Mr. Jackson's abrupt departure. There are no title cards for example, that say, "June 25, 2009, early morning" -- the last time Mr. Jackson would be seen alive by his collaborators and colleagues.

Instead, "This Is It", a vivid, colorful film which rarely takes a breather, works as great toe-tapping entertainment, as brief glimpses of video are shown, and we witness full rehearsals of songs including "Human Nature", "Thriller" (accompanied by amazing set designs and costumes), "I'll Be There", "Wanna Be Starting Something", "The Way You Make Me Feel" (especially memorable), "Beat It", and "They Don't Care About Us", the last of which was both galvanizing and moving. When things don't go according to plan, Mr. Jackson reminds the mistake maker, "that's why this is a rehearsal." The comment leaves you smiling and imaging just how good the actual concert would have been.

Michael Jackson is shown in "This Is It" as a man with unstoppable energy, executing dance moves as well as 25 years before, and as a man with unfailing politeness. He's also a frail man -- but no more frail or lean than he was back in the early 1980s in "Beat It", and no more sinewy than Mick Jagger, with whom he collaborated during that decade. We feel love projected from the big screen (and probably more so in IMAX) through Mr. Jackson's unique gifts and abilities, and get a sense of his spiritual dimensions. It's difficult for an audience, even those who weren't fans of Mr. Jackson, not to be enlivened, moved, saddened and greatly entertained into admiration.

With: Kenny Ortega, Michael Bearden, Travis Payne, Orianthi Panagiatis, Alex Al, Michael Bennett, Mo Pleasure, and countless other concert singers, dancers and choreographers. No celebrities are here for cameo close-ups.

"Michael Jackson's This Is It" is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for some suggestive choreography and scary images. The film's running time is two hours and 1 minute. Share

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