Leaving Neverland **** / *****
Directed by: Dan Reed.
It took
me a while to watch Leaving Neverland – and even after I watched part 1, it
took me a few days before I was ready to dive back into part 2 – which is not
an experience I usually have. I am the person who watched Shoah in one sitting,
and more often than not, likes to watch miniseries the same way – so six hour
shows like Mildred Pierce or Angels in America are all one day things for me.
But Leaving Neverland was a difficult film (miniseries, whatever) for me to get
through. And I say this not as someone who ever idolized Michael Jackson - I’m
a fan of his music, but never went crazy with it. The craziest of those fans
have come out in full attack mode against this film. I’ve never really
understood the confidence of fans of their favorite celebrity’s innocence when
they get accused of something awful. It’s just related to Michael Jackson –
Woody Allen fans are just as sure of his innocence (I am a Woody Allen fan,
although I have to admit I find the thought of watching his films hard now –
mainly because yes, I do believe Dylan). I wish those who were so adamant about
his innocence just sit down and watch this film – because they should.
In many
ways, Leaving Neverland is a very simple documentary – its simplicity is part
of why it is so effective. The vast majority of the film is made up of
interviews with Wade Robson and James Safechuck – two men now around the age of
40, who in the late 1980s and early 1990s (when they were children) were
“friends” with Michael Jackson. On that, everyone agrees. But what Robson and
Safechuck now claim is that during those years, Michael Jackson sexually abused
them. This is the first – or even second or third – people to come forward with
these claims about Jackson. There has been a fairly steady stream of them
coming forward since 1993 – and while Jackson was never convicted of anything,
I’m sorry, it’s very hard for me to think that this is all smoke, and no fire. And
if you just sit down and listen to Robson and Safechuck – you can make up your
own mind. They seem believable to me.
So,
basically for the first two hours of this film, Safechuck and Robson – and
those close to them – detail how they came to be in Michael Jackson’s orbit –
Robson won a dance competition and was a Jackson super fan and got to know him
that way, Safechuck was a child commercial actor who did a Pepsi commercial
with him, and knew him that way. And how Jackson didn’t just groom them – but
groomed their families as well to except what, really, no parent should really
except. They tell the story about their days, weekends, weeks at Neverland –
where the days were filled with fun and games, and then at night, their parents
would stay in one part of the house, while they would stay with Jackson. And
that is when the abuse happened. The second part of the film – the last two
hours – are really about the aftermath of that abuse. What they did when the
first allegations came out in 1993 – and how they have responded and dealt with
things ever since, including their eventual decisions to come forward with
these allegations – which they had previously denied – after Jackson’s death.
The film
was directed by Dan Reed, and he really does adopt a very simple approach. He
takes what archival footage he has, and cuts it together with interviews – with
the two men, but also their family members, especially their mothers. Both
Safechuck and Robson’s mothers played a key role in their relationship with
Jackson – but both are very different in how they saw things at the time, and
how they see things to this day. The film does make you understand at least
their logic in letting their sons spend this much time with Jackson alone – up
to and including sleeping in his bed with him, which as a parent makes no sense
to me at all – but to them, at least, made sense at the time.
You can,
if you want, criticize the film for being one sided – although, I’m not quite
sure the way around that. Jackson is dead, so he cannot defend himself, and
even if he were alive, he always maintained his innocence during his life, so
we know what he would say now. And we know what his estate says now. The film
does include the child abuse trial that did happen – at which Jackson was acquitted.
It allows Robson and Safechuck to explain why, at various times (even in legal
proceedings) they denied Jackson did anything to them. It doesn’t really try
and hide that. And you can watch the film and make up your own mind as to
whether or not you believe these allegations. I know I made up my mine.
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