Whitney Houston

  • Waiting to Exhale (1995)

    Waiting to Exhale (1995)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2019) While Waiting to Exhale isn’t that significant a movie in film history, it still plays so often on cable that it wore me down. I gave up and finally recorded it, although not out of exasperation. My intentions in watching it were not noble at all: Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine and Angela Basset headlining the film? I’ll watch that. An episodic story focusing on four women’s attempt to find love in spite of bad partners, Waiting to Exhale also features the directorial debut of Forest Whitaker, who imbues the film with odd stylistic choices that, perhaps unfortunately, precisely date the movie to the mid-1990s. Still, the movie itself is quite a bit of fun to watch. Our heroines don’t take cheating and romantic disappointment very well: in the film’s most memorable sequence, one sets fire to her cheating husband’s car, his clothes inside. While the episodic nature of Waiting to Exhale means that it has high and low points, the acting talent brought together here remains notable. Angela Basset, in particular, is at her best here with a powerhouse performance. The all-black casting is so successful in that by the time a white woman shows up (as a romantic rival, no less) late in the movie, the effect is definitely jarring. Among the male cast, Dennis Haysbert and Wesley Snipes have good roles, but viewers should be forewarned that this is not a movie in which men get the most admirable characters—this is female empowerment, and much of Waiting to Exhale’s success can be found in how completely and solidly it makes viewers (even white men such as myself) identify with the four black women protagonists.

  • Sparkle (2012)

    Sparkle (2012)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2013) There’s something extremely comfortable in Sparkle’s story about three female singers trying to make it in late-sixties Detroit.  It doesn’t take a detailed history of The Supremes to know the place, understand the challenges and guess the dangers they face from boyfriends, drugs, fame and familial disapproval.  The music is familiar to the point of being curiously forgettable, the period detail easily mirrors countless other similar films and the stage cinematography feels like an old comfortable sequin dress.  The plot, more episodic than tightly-wrapped, can be followed along with some narrative pleasure even it’s a blend of conventional elements.  The only real question is whether the actors can do something with this material, and whether the music is worth it.  Sparkle doesn’t exactly sparks when it comes to its songs: they all skew toward the sultry rather than the rhythmic side of Motown –viewer’s appreciation will vary according to their own tastes.  Fortunately, the film does quite a bit better when it comes to performances: Mike Epps is deliciously evil as the antagonist, while Carmen Ejogo does fine as his main victim.  Jordin Sparks is comparatively duller as the title character (it’s not a challenging role, especially compared to Ejogo’s harsher dramatic arc) but relative newcomer Tika Sumpter gets a little bit more substance as the third sister of the ensemble.  Elsewhere in the cast, Whitney Houston gets one last role as the matriarch-who-learns-better, while Derek Luke is unexpectedly charming as the good guy.  While Sparkle won’t have much of a legacy, it is an acceptable film for those who want just a little bit more of that Motownish magic.

  • The Bodyguard (1992)

    The Bodyguard (1992)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2012) The Bodyguard may not have earned unanimously favourable reviews when it came out, but it has stood the test of time relatively well, even though the fates of its two lead actors may now lend it an unwarranted gravitas.  Whitney Houston is now dead, of course, victim of internal conflicts that seem so much more complicated than being stalked by insane fans and professional killers.  Kevin Costner, meanwhile, has retreated into a quasi-parody of his humorless character, reaping scorns from his Waterworld-esque hubris and seldom allowing himself to portray weakness.  The Bodyguard came at the peak of the period where he was a major A-list actor, and it’s not hard to see how it was a star vehicle for his stoic infallible personae.  As a piece of entertainment, though, the film still clicks: The mixture of thrills and romance is carefully dosed for maximal impact (even when the contrivances pile up), Houston is immensely appealing and Costner act as a capable foil for her.  The suspense sequences are cleverly shot, and it’s easy to get caught up in the story despite its familiarity.  The early-nineties period is just beginning to date (the cars are the most obvious tell-tale), but there’s no need to remake The Bodyguard: It’s just as effective now that when it came out, and the number of memorable songs from the soundtrack is impressive… even for those who have never seen the film.