Film reviews
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This Is It (Film)
Rating: G
Running Time: 112
Country: USA
Cast: Michael Jackson
Distributor: Sony
Release Date: October 28, 2009
Film Worth: $13.00
FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worthA moving tribute to a one-of-a-kind performer, with great songs and even an Australian twist.
Everything aside - and with Michael Jackson that's a hell of a lot of things - This Is It is a fascinating music documentary. It's rehearsal footage, not a concert film, so there's none of the electricity that comes from a performer playing to a crowd. Yet Jackson is captivating. His voice superb. His dancing effortless. And the near wall-to-wall classics - ‘Thriller', ‘Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'', ‘Human Nature', ‘Billie Jean' - are wonderful.
But there's a sadness that hangs over this film. You're constantly aware of the months of intense preparation for a string of London concerts that will never happen - and that you're watching a man who will soon be dead.
Distilled from around one-hundred hours of footage, This Is It has undoubtedly been sanitised - deliberately crafted to project an image of Jackson as a creative force; a perfectionist. Director Kenny Ortega (also Jackson's creative director) shows the audience what a concert would have looked like from start to finish. So rather than a watching a process of musical development, what we see is already quite polished.
There are segments showing Jackson off-stage, plus interviews with musicians and dancers. On-stage these performers reveal their talents, but it's almost impossible to shift your focus away from Jackson. One person, however, emerges from the background - Australian guitarist Orianthi Panagaris. "It's your time to shine," Jackson says to her, coaching her through a solo, and shine she does.
Jackson, for the most part, does not look like a happy man. There's a strange formality - a politeness - in the way he and the crew interact. But there is some off-stage levity (the dancers practicing their crotch-grabbing moves are especially amusing).
It's an absorbing and ultimately moving documentary. And the film makes its point - that Jackson was a supremely gifted artist. Right until the end.
