Film
Michael Jackson's This is it documentary hits record
The saving grace of Michael Jackson's swan song This Is It, a grab-bag of rehearsal footage, on-camera interviews and backstage moments captured on the fly, is that its contents were never intended as a film. Instead, as a solemn caption informs us, this footage, shot in America between March and June this year, was destined for Jackson's "personal library". Sadly, of course, he died before departing for London, where he was due to perform 50 live shows. The consolation is that the footage in This Is it, much of it shot on single, relatively static cameras, offers a fair idea of how the shows might have looked. Specifically, it showcases dance routines featuring Jackson and his awesomely athletic dancers, recruited from around the world. There was no chance for multiple takes or fast cutting to disguise deficiencies in the dancing – a plague of modern movie musicals from Chicago to the recent tepid re-make of Fame.
Initially, there's a fascination in watching Jackson performing the same song – Wanna Be Startin' Something – on different days, in different moods. Director Kenny Ortega, who is also a choreographer, sometimes employs split screens to portray identical moments simultaneously.
But as This Is It progresses, the focus shifts to Jackson's struggle to stay on top of this hugely demanding show. At times, when he performs Billie Jean and Man in the Mirror, his authority and remarkable stage presence carry the day.
Yet in other moments he seems petulant, tentative and even frail. He interrupts one routine to deliver a curious rant about his earphone, through which he can hear his back-up singers, causing severe pain in his inner ear.
While his singing voice remains sound, his dancing has declined. I was in the audience to witness arguably his finest moment – the Motown 25th anniversary concert in 1984, when he was simply electrifying. But in fairness, you also wouldn't guess from his dancing in This Is It that Jackson was 50.
We now know that the London shows would have been hugely ambitious and spectacular. A new film of Thriller in 3-D had been shot, along with a not quite convincing sequence in which Jackson (dressed as a gangster) is spliced into classic Hollywood movies, including Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth.
This Is it sags in the middle: one tires of his sycophantic troupe (nobody argues with 'MJ') and much of the material becomes repetitive.
Still, Ortega has applied himself studiously to his task, and the film is some recompense for those deprived by his death of seeing Jackson live.
The film (produced in association with the Michael Jackson Company) carries the dedication: "For the fans." Quite so: non-believers will find little of interest here. Would Jackson would have completed all 50 strenuous London shows had he lived? On this evidence, the jury's out.
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