This Is It – Movie Review

Movie Length: 112 minutes

Rating: Highly Recommended!!

This great documentary contains a wonderful collection of shared impressions and individual emotions swirling around a physical presence. The single biggest revelation in watching This Is It is obviously the backstage footage of Michael Jackson’s Los Angeles rehearsals.

As we all know, Michael Jackson had scheduled to perform 50 shows before a cumulative audience of over a million at London’s Millennium Dome. It was scheduled to be his anticipated comeback after a 12 year absence, but a fatal cardiac arrest last June closed the curtain before it even opened — leaving those closest to him, and the rest of the world, in a state of disbelief, as it did severely impact me being a die hard Michael Jackson fan!

Michael Jackson’s confusing public persona seemed too broad, and simply too fractured, to disappear in an instant. The documentary This Is It does attempts to give us a true picture of Michael Jackson the person, the performer & the caring person that he was.

Serving as an ethereal signal delay, this rehearsal footage brings the echoing presence of Michael Jackson back into his body, and back on stage, where we came to know and love him as a gifted performer, dancer, writer and musical genius.

Michael Jackson was nothing short of a pop genius, and longtime creative collaborator and This Is It director Kenny Ortega cements the very best of Jackson into the historical record as he shows us the man in his element.

This Is It is assembled from more than 100 hours of live footage from three different camera crews, which presents a jigsaw puzzle version of the show that would have been – as it evolves through different run-throughs of the familiar and still-catchy tunes.

Ortega finds enough light and shadow to give us a three-dimensional portrait of the artist as a working man. We see Michael Jackson in different moods as he carries the show on his shoulders, insisting on perfection from every single participant including himself.

And you have to hand it to the legend - He was magnificent and mesmerising as expected.

The Way You Make Me Feel – in which he tells the studio to let it simmer, like “you’re dragging yourself out of bed” – to his older-brother style coaching of lightning fingered female guitarist Orianthi Panagaris, telling her “this is your moment, and we’re all here for you,” Michael Jackson understood he was the leader. Orianthi by the way did shine, what a guitarist!

At the same time, we can see how Ortega was a bit of the wizard behind the curtain, making sure Jackson felt nurtured, heard and tended – without losing any sense of being in charge.

It’s a delicate balance, and every time you see Ortega on screen, it’s usually one of those moments where he just plain surrenders to Michael Jackson’s greatness.

Many of these moments are actually quite funny, partly because Michael Jackson looks a little confused and wary of all the love coming from his professional collaborators.

At one point in this mesmerizing movie, we see Jackson put his whole singing voice into the rehearsal for Billie Jean as the audience, the crew and dancers in attendance go absolutely crazy.

Blown away at getting a private show of Jackson’s signature tune, and just being there for what promised to be history, is clearly a moving event for these performers, artists and technicians.

In the show we really did get to see Michael Jackson’s thin frame and his facial features because we’re looking for signs of his imminent demise, not seeing his eyes without sunglasses until later in the movie.

As the movie progresses, we get to see the fully engaged musician and artist at work without reservations. Even though we get used to his thin body size and his sunglasses, it seems evident that there are health issues there – if only because every time he opens his mouth, we need subtitles to figure out just what he’s saying.

We remember the boyish side of Michael Jackson the minute the digital dolphins, orcas and endangered Amazonian animals scamper across the screen. But we can embrace it this time around because it’s not only sincere, his rainforest campaign is also rational.

This Is It resurrects the image of Michael Jackson as a thinking, smart and legendary talented man who helped defined popular culture in the last few 4 decades.

More than anything, though, it’s all about the way it makes you feel. This Is It takes the viewer on a highly charged and incredibly human emotional voyage because it’s the most unmediated footage of Michael Jackson ever seen.

It’s authentic. It’s sincere, and it’s the last creative will and physical testament of a man we all got to love.

May the king live for ever and make sure you do see this superb movie!!!