This Is It

The film is made of Michael Jackson's rehearsals for the fifty concerts he was to play at the O2 Arena in London. The footage was not shot for release; Kenny Ortega said it was private material and that the film came about as an accident. Ortega was also the show's choreographer. In the film Jackson corrects the staging, the timing of the lights and the entrances of the musicians one by one; what stands out is less the singing than the control. Jackson died in June 2009 and the run planned from July 2009 to March 2010 was cancelled. The film opened four months after his death. It took 267.9 million dollars worldwide and holds the Guinness World Record as the highest-grossing documentary. 72.4 percent of the revenue came from outside the United States, with Japan alone contributing 55.57 million. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 81 percent. Roger Ebert called it extraordinary; critics praised Jackson's perfectionism and creative control in rehearsal, while some noted this is an unfinished concert. There was controversy too. Several members of Jackson's family opposed the release, and his father Joe claimed body doubles had been used, which Sony flatly denied. Campaign groups called for a boycott, arguing that AEG Live was using his death to recover its losses. Who it is for: viewers who want to see Jackson at work and how a show gets built. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a full concert. This is not a show but a record of a man preparing one.