Review: 'Michael' captures the performing side of Michael Jackson, but leaves the personal stuff on the cutting-room floor
Some of what’s in “Michael,” a family-authorized biographical drama on the life of pop icon Michael Jackson, is quite effective — for example, the way newcomer Jaafar Jackson captures his uncle’s dance moves and charismatic performing style.
Other elements of this soft-focus drama are terrible reminders of other bad musical biopics, namely “Bohemian Rhapsody” — which shares in common with this movie the same atrocious cameo actor and a nagging sense that part of the story isn’t being told for the sake of maintaining a deceased star’s still lucrative legacy.
Jaafar Jackson mostly doesn’t show up for the first 45 minutes, as director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan tell a strictly chronological story of how Michael Jackson became the King of Pop. It starts in Gary, Indiana, in 1966, with Michael (played at age 8 by Juliano Valdi) and his four older brothers constantly rehearsing for their hard-driving father, Joseph Jackson, played menacingly by Colman Domingo. Joseph pushes his sons to get their movies perfect, and when Michael complains that they’re tired and need to go to school in the morning, Joseph brings out the belt to tan young Michael’s backside.
This family dynamic — of Joseph treating Michael brutally while his brothers and their mother, Katherine (Nia Long), are helpless to stop it — is the constant in Michael’s life, even as an adult. When Michael wants to start a solo career, he sends two record-company executives to tell Joseph, and they come back with an unsatisfactory answer. When Michael finally gets a good lawyer, John Branca (Miles Teller), one of Branca’s first moves is to fire Joseph as Michael’s manager, by fax.
Much of what Logan (“Gladiator,” “The Aviator”) strings together in this script is career highlights — topping the charts with the Jackson 5, then releasing the solo albums “Off the Wall” and “Thriller” — dotted with sweet moments of Michael connecting with fans, visiting children in the hospital, and collecting a vast array of toys and animals (including his chimp, Bubbles, created here with computer animation).
What you won’t get in “Michael” is anything detailing the last 20 years of his life. Jackson died in 2009, and the movie ends with his 1988 tour, performing “Bad.” So the movie omits anything about his reported substance abuse issues, accusations of mistreating boys (for which he was acquitted in a 2005 criminal trial), and eccentric behavior on his Neverland Ranch. (The ranch is never mentioned, though early fascinations with Peter Pan, Oz and Disney are.)
Fuqua, who made music videos before embarking on a movie career that includes “Training Day” and “The Equalizer” franchise, exercises those old muscles to create some compelling musical moments. Fuqua and Jaafar Jackson neatly recreate Michael’s 1983 TV introduction of the moonwalk, a rehearsal of the dance moves in the “Beat It” video, and the filming of Jackson’s “Thriller” video. (In a funny aside, Jackson never refers to them as videos, but as “short films.”)
Most of the dramatic moments — and the portrayals of such luminaries as Motown’s Berry Gordy (Larenz Tate) and Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson) — are serviceable, if flat and cliche-filled. The absolute clunker involves a meeting between Michael and CBS Records’ head honcho, Walter Yetnikoff, played by layers of disfiguring facial makeup wrapped over Mike Myers’ face. Yes, Myers played a similarly awful rendition of a record-label boss in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and the second attempt is more annoying than the first.
“Michael” will give fans of the late singer’s music what they want to see: Letter-perfect re-enactments of Jackson’s signature musical moments — moments you could stream on YouTube. Anyone wanting a peek into what made Jackson tick will moonwalk away disappointed.
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‘Michael’
★★1/2
Opens Friday, April 24, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for some thematic material, language, and smoking. Running time: 127 minutes.