What do you get when two adults try to schedule going to the movies together? You end up going to an 8.30pm session on a Monday night!

So with our schedules aligned, a friend and I went to see the new Whitney Houston biopic: I Wanna Dance with Somebody. I wouldn’t call myself a huge Whitney Houston fan (in the true meaning of fanatical) but I do love her music and she features across a few of my playlists.

Like so many artists, when you get a chance for a deeper give you realise just how many hits they have and this film certainly shows not only how successful Whitney was but how many well-known songs are in her repertoire. I’m probably going to be listening to Whitney for the rest of the week. I may be listening to her as I am typing my reflections on the film – I’m highly influenced in that way.

For many of us, I think the story of Whitney Houston is a somewhat sad and troubled one which was ultimately tragically cut short. As the film is from the same creatives that brought us Bohemian Rhapsody, I thought this film would be done in a similar fashion where it won’t show us the tragic end and instead end on a high note of how we should remember Whitney.

And that’s certainly what happened. The film is a homage to the once in a generation voice Whitney had and the incredible legacy she has left behind. A legacy that includes seven consecutive No. 1 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the first woman to enter the Billboard 200 at No. 1.

That said, I was still preparing myself for a sombre experience. This however did not happen. For some reason I didn’t feel as if I got to know Whitney. It was like something was lacking, I’m just not sure what.

Given that White is no longer with us, it’s not her story to tell. It’s her life presented through the eyes of others. The film is said to have been authorised by the Houston family and I noticed that Pat Houston was listed as an executive producer in the opening credits – Pat is Whitney’s sister-in-law (which I found out during and post the film).

There is a lot of content which is covered in the two and a half hour run-time but ultimately the narrative presented is somewhat confused. Rather than focusing on one or two plot points to develop a richer story, the film attempts to explore too many relationships across her lifetime leaving the viewer with too many unexplored threads.

Setting aside the story the film is trying to tell, there is a lot to like here.

Firstly Naomi Ackie in the lead role did an incredible job with her performance, showing the rollercoaster life Whitney had in such a short period of time. Ackie portrays each stage of Whitney’s life from teen up until her last day and you can tell she gave a lot to the performance. I would have loved to see her given scenes with more grit, I saw glimpses and this might have given the film what it needed.

While Ackie provides some vocals on the soundtrack, most of the singing used was of Whitney’s actual voice. Quite simply there is no one with a voice like hers.

I really enjoyed the process shown for how Whitney selected what songs she wanted to record (as she wasn’t a song writer) and loved the way the music videos were recreated as part of this.

The costumes were stunning adding a lot of joy and glamour to the film. And stick around for the real life photos and videos that the film recreated – I love it when biopics have real footage included as part of the credits.

It would have been impossible to show case all of Whitney’s back catalogue and while you always want more, the choice of songs used were great. I thought the way each number 1 hit was show via a champagne bottle (which was a stipulation in her contract) was a clever technique but I wish they had of made it clearer what each song was in that sequence.

While I do tend to take these kind of films with a grain of salt, as there is always an element of embellishment or timelines being changed to help with pacing, what I will take away from the film is a great appreciation of the incredible voice that Whitney had.

I would have liked to seen more about Whitney but perhaps we just don’t know how she felt and worked through those periods in her life.