The story starts with Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie) tuning her voice and style with her mother Cissy (Tamara Tunie) in the local church. Whitney knew she wanted to sing and was hopeful for better things to come. She met Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams) at a young age and soon both became a couple, right about when her career was about to explode. One night when Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci) was in the audience of a local club Cissy faked a throat problem and asked Whitney to perform for her. It was at this time that Whitney was soon signing a deal with Arista Records with Clive as her personal agent. Whitney’s father John (Clarke Peters) became her manager which was not exactly the best idea seeing that John used her fame and money for his own needs and enjoyment. Robyn against John’s wishes became Whitney’s Creative Director and continual best friend and supporter even after their sexual relationship ended.

Whitney decided she wanted to have a family and one night at a music awards show she met Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) and thereafter got married and eventually had a baby girl. They named their daughter Bobbi Kristina (Bria Danielle Singleton) but as Bobbi got older the relationship between her parents became fractured. As most know this was the time when Whitney turned to drugs and alcohol and eventually lost the golden voice that made her famous and the “voice” of music. Going through rehab was successful for a bit but eventually the pressure of fame, family and power drove her back to the dark side once again and this time there was no return when she died at The Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The writing was pretty good but it definitely was fractured in that years and life situations for Whitney jumped around a bit. If you were living in the 80’s you would know the entire story of Whitney already although there are a few surprises at least for me, Robyn being one! The direction is well done and the music and wardrobe along with the hair styles were great matching the years in Whitney’s short life. It was definitely a tragedy to lose someone so talented at 48 years old but it was even more difficult to hear all the trash talk about Whitney as well. The film is not perfect but if you were a super fan as I was you would not care. Her music alone is worth the ticket and the over two hours in the theater.

I thought Ackie at times looked very similar to Whitney and her acting was pretty good considering she had to lip sink like a pro drag queen. Tucci did a nice job as Clive, hairdo and all. I was not a fan of Sanders as Brown, he just had too much of a child-like side to him. Obviously, the story was very light on the bad ass side of Brown so it did not give Sanders a chance to grow up and show the true bad side of the singer he portrayed. I liked Tunie who was a good show mom and Peters well he was definitely a true jackass but he was still her dad. As for Williams I felt they did not elaborate on the issues she had to deal with as Whitney’s girlfriend and later best friend and employee, she played more of a statue than a skilled actor but again that comes down to the writing. I really think if you loved Whitney, you will still love the story since it is about the biggest voice in music history. I also did like the beagle at Clive’s house and the bed cat in the beginning at Robyn and Whitney’s apartment, small roles but good to see our furry friends on the big screen and in a positive light.