The two films today both carry a lot of dramatic potential, but unfortunately don’t come close to reaching their promise. In cinemas, there’s the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody; and on Netflix, the Scott Cooper adaptation of the historical fiction mystery novel, The Pale Blue Eye.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (in cinemas) - Whitney Houston is a singular pop star and given her life, deserves a strong dramatic biopic. Naomi Ackie is a bright young star, and should similarly be given an acting vehicle to show off her prowess. It’s sad that this film doesn’t live up to the promise. If you didn’t know anything about Houston, you may find this film serviceable, and something of an eye opener. But if you’ve followed her storied and then sad career, and watched the documentaries that came out after her untimely demise, you’ll be sorely disappointed by how paint by numbers and non-revelatory this film is. It’s like somebody said the whole exercise had to be safe and non-controversial.

And that is a shame, as here was one cautionary tale of stardom and excess that was begging to be told. The fact that Clive Davis of Arista Records, who is credited with discovering Whitney is a co-producer to this film, may speak volumes of the approach taken in this film biopic. The Whitney and Clive (Stanley Tucci) story takes up more screen time than the Bobby Brown and Whitney chapter of her life. And when so many of her songs are played in full in the film, you know that film soundtrack and filler are two of the concerns to the narrative. We all know about how her music was accused of not being ‘black’ enough, and how early in her career, there were whispers of her preference for women as lovers. To mention these, but not add to the issues, other than acknowledging they existed, is a glaring weakness to this film. 

The Pale Blue Eye (Netflix USA) - I truly enjoyed the Louis Bayard novel when it came out in 2003. Historical fiction in the form of a murder mystery and with the true to life figure of Edgar Allan Poe as a young West Point cadet assisting the troubled detective Augustus Landor. At the ‘heart’ of the case were the possibly unrelated deaths of one cadet by hanging, and a second whose heart had been surgically pulled out of his chest. Grisly, gothic murders that supposedly took place in the 1830’s, as West Point Military Academy was just beginning it’s illustrious history. Given that juncture, it’s only natural that the military authorities wanted to hush up what was going on, and turned to Landor to conduct a private investigation.

Scott Cooper wrote the screenplay and directs Christian Bale as Landor, and there’s Harry Melling portraying Edgar Allan Poe. There’s an unsettling, cold, monochromatic quality to the cinematography, and it’s all atmosphere and our feeling the harshness of the winter conditions. Unfortunately, when we do need some warmth or resonance for our main characters, it never comes. So we’re left just watching the proceedings without ever truly investing in any of the characters. Melling gives Poe a haunted quality that’s quite spooky, but I had to be wondering just how many scenes of a brooding Christian Bale does one movie need? Had high hopes for this one given the people behind it, but was sorely disappointed.