Engineered to satisfy the nostalgia of adoring fans, the Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” unfurls as an inventory of touchstone moments in the gifted singer’s tumultuous career — a greatest hits album if you will.
With Naomi Ackie (“Small Axe”) in the central role and veteran director Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) at the helm, the generally by-the-numbers execution and structure still yields some goosebumps-inducing highlights that evoke Houston’s stage presence.
The screenplay by Anthony McCarten, a sought-after biopic writer whose recent credits include the utterly conventional but awards-friendly “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Darkest Hour,” drops us into the timeline in 1983 when Houston shared her privileged pipes with her congregation and at a local New Jersey club with her mother, Cissy (Tamara Tunie).