He Said, She Said: Michael Jackson's This Is It
By Caroline Thibodeaux
November 2, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Unless you were living in a cave somewhere in an alternate dimension this summer, you probably know that international pop music star Michael Jackson died unexpectedly this past June of cardiac arrest. At the time, Jackson was in the midst of rehearsals for a series of sold out concerts scheduled to begin taking place in London, England the following month. The production was to be titled "This Is It" as Jackson had promoted the series of concerts as his farewell to performing. Following Jackson's untimely passing, director/choreographer Kenny Ortega (previous works include Dirty Dancing and High School Musical) spliced together rehearsal footage and descriptive "Making Of" style video documentary involving the various technology created for the cancelled production. With the cooperation of Jackson's estate, concert promoter AEG and Sony Pictures, Ortega has delivered Michael Jackson's This Is It - the company's last run-throughs before dress rehearsals were to begin and the last testament to Jackson's massive talent, dedicated artistry and once-in-a-lifetime genius as a performer.
I'm an admitted lifelong fan of Jackson and his sudden death saddened me. I also generally enjoy films that outline the process of the artist, so my impartiality as a reviewer may be sketchy at best. Merely judging the movie based on its own merits is a tricky exercise, but a necessary endeavor for our purposes here today. The film exists as a last opportunity for Jackson's fans to see him doing what he did best the way he wanted to do it. Jackson once said that if he could he would "live on stage." This is never more evident than while watching him rehearse. At every moment he appears absolutely comfortable, natural and in control. As bleached and pulled as his skin probably was, he is completely at home within it at all times. The musicality and the moves are all there and the voice is well intact as is witnessed during a stretch of a gorgeous vocalization of "Human Nature". Whether he's approaching a number full out or merely marking so the company "can get the feel of it" (Billie Jean), he knows exactly what he's doing at every second as well as everything that's going on around him. He has his hand and his input in every aspect of the production. He's there at the corps dancer auditions. He's at the studio overseeing story and character development of the digital films that were to be used in "Smooth Criminal" and "Thriller". He's an insistent taskmaster with his Music Director equating "the funk" with "the love" and on "The Way You Make Me Feel" he's simultaneously serenading and directing his lead female dancer.
Herein lies one of the myriad examples of why it is so hard to just watch the movie and write about it. Jackson's entire life, career and subsequent death was so grandly baroque and uniquely bizarre it's impossible to not be reminded of it while he puts himself through his paces. He makes good on his promise to perform all of the songs the fans want to hear going all the way back to the old Jackson 5 Motown stuff. As hit song after hit song is rehearsed/performed, not only does it bring you back to the first time you heard the song or saw the video, the retrospective of his life intermittently and inescapably becomes the accompaniment. He's so good even when he's just practicing a tune that it's nearly impossible to reconcile this person with someone whose heart failure was brought on by the administering of heavy anesthesia. While I should have been watching the film and assessing it for its singular value I found myself musing that perhaps Jackson couldn't sleep because the energy and ideas just kept coursing through his mind continuously while he needed to be resting.
Ortega does a perfectly adequate job of piecing together a spry montage of preparation and process paired with a set list of familiar tunes. Ortega knew Jackson well, and he reminds us that Jackson had a light ease about himself and he was funny, even when he was being incredibly serious about the work. The opening weepy testimonials by the dancers are a laid on a little too thickly at the outset - so much so that I was nervous that a 90 minute cry fest was about to unwind. Fortunately the tears are wiped away soon enough and everyone gets down to business. Technicians, singers, musicians, choreographers and designers are interviewed separately but their messages are all pretty similar. Jackson inspires them to push themselves to their limits and they enjoy the challenge.
There's an eventual emptiness that comes while watching Michael Jackson's This Is It. For one thing, I felt somewhat like a voyeur looking at something I wasn't supposed to be seeing just yet. Jackson was such a perfectionist and has always been portrayed as someone who expected the best and most out of himself and everyone around him. I couldn't help speculating whether or not he would have liked being shown reviewing a number not at full voice or running down a dance number at half energy in a less than sharp and focused manner. I imagine he may have felt that showing him this way was a cheat, not up to his standard and took away from the magic. But a recoup on AEG's investment has to be attempted, if not assumed, I suppose. If everything had come to fore as planned, it seems as though the concert itself would have been spectacular.
After a decade of being in the news for all the wrong reasons it would have been a gratifying moment for Jackson and his fans if he could have pulled this one off. While it's impossible for the film to capture the grand scope of everything the company was trying to achieve in the stark, barren Staples Center, the audience is given the impression that something truly special was being created and oh, what might've been. Jackson was extending himself and planning a comeback worthy of remembrance and not just a tacky attempt to cash in on former glory. This Is It is a final opportunity to see Jackson doing what he knew how to do better than anyone else. Always an enigma, but in the end simply a man trying to put on a show.