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TV REVIEW: Demetria McKinney embodies the role of Whitney Houston in boring 'Bobbi Kristina' biopic

Demetria McKinney shined as Whitney Houston and saved the boring 'Bobbi Kristina' biopic. The abusive side of Nick Gordon is unsettling.

The controversial Bobbi Kristina biopic - which aired Sunday night (Oct. 8) on TV One - detailed the final years of Whitney Houston’s life and how her death in 2012 led to her daughter’s downward spiral. Bobbi Kristina died three years after the death of her mother. She was only 22 years old. 

 Even though the Bobbi Kristina film often bored me at times and I felt like she did not need a biopic made about her, the film was decent, thanks to the phenomenal acting abilities from the cast, mostly from Demetria McKinney (who played Whitney Houston).


Before the film started, words displayed on a black screen read: "based on true events, some characters have been composited or invented, and a number of events fictionalized."

 We are immediately thrown into to the opening scene of Whitney Houston and her daughter arguing which happens the day before Whitney dies. 

 Bobbi is shown crying out to her mother, "why do you have to be a mess?" as cigarettes and lines of cocaine are shown nearby on a table. Whitney pleads that she's not a mess and that she loves her daughter. But, Bobbi continues to cry out about only being known as Whitney's daughter and having to live in her shadow. 

 After saying she hates her mother, Bobbi storms out the room and soon after, Whitney finds her daughter under water in a bathtub. Whitney pulls her out and saves her from drowning.

 I wonder if this is true. Has Bobbi Kristina tried to commit suicide before her tragic death?

 The next day (Grammy's day, Feb. 11, 2012), Whitney is sitting outside at a table while talking to Bobbi and Nick Gordon (whom she took in as her own son supposedly after his mom kicked him out).  

 Flashing camera lights from the paparazzi rush Whitney and the kids off as they head back inside the Beverly Hills Hotel. They walk down the hotel hallway and stop near Whitney's room. Nick says him and Bobbi are going to head out to the pool before leaving Whitney to head inside her hotel room alone. Whitney tells Nick to look after Bobbi and she also tells her daughter that she loves her (one last time). Bobbi says nothing back and continues to walk down the hallway with Nick. 

 In the next scene, news reports of how the singer has died surfaces. 

 Bobbi, who is now dressed in all black, is left in shock. Her aunt Pat (played by actress Vivica Fox) walks into the room and asks if she is okay. Bobbi responds by saying, "that was supposed to be me ... she [Whitney] saved me and then she died in my place." 

 Pat makes it her mission to look after Bobbi after Whitney's passing. A couple of weeks later, Bobbi heads back to her Georgia home as she deals with the death of her mother. 

 She continues to remember her mother throughout the movie in a series of flashback. The flashback scenes are the best part of the film, and this is where Demetria McKinney shines while portraying the legendary singer. We get bits of singing and high notes plus some of that Whitney swag here and there. In one scene, Whitney even jokes about changing her wig. Everything from the singing to the mannerisms were all on point! Demetria nailed it!

We soon see the first small glimpse of her father, Bobby Brown, in the film. Bobbi calls her father and mentions him leaving Whitney's funeral early. She tells him that her and her mother were not okay after he left and that he should have fought to stay.

 "... Mommy died believing you didn't even love her," Bobbi cries out to her father on the phone. 

Although Vivica Fox has said the film was done with love and respect, Bobby reportedly tried stopping this movie from being aired. He had concerns about the way he is depicted in the film, but he was unsuccessful. 

 RELATED: Bobby Brown Talks About Bobbi Kristina's Death on 'The Real,' Says His Daughter Might Still Be Alive If He Were Able to See Her Sooner 

 The film continues with just being all over the place. After Whitney dies, Nick becomes upset because he's not included in the will. He was also upset at not being included in a TV series with the family which left him out of receiving a cut of the money.

Whitney took Gordon in at age 12, and after her death, Bobbi Kristina was rarely seen without him by her side. Nick made sure to have that money by any means necessary and with Whitney gone, he used Bobbi to get it, and he couldn't wait to develop a relationship with her.

 Nick was portrayed in the film as greedy, controlling and very abusive, and he tried to control Bobbi's life. At one point, he was supposed to be her manager and help make her music career pop. Bobbi noticed he just always wanted to shop. She tried getting serious with her career in music multiple times and even told Nick they would have to stop doing drugs.  

 Family and friends thought it was weird when Bobbi became engaged to "family." Although Nick was not related to Bobbi by blood and he was never officially adopted by Whitney, he was considered to be like another child to the late singer. 

 In one scene, Nick accused Bobbi of fooling around and was yelling at her to shutup as she walked away singing "you're not even worth it." Nick tried to keep Bobbi sheltered and often times told her it was them against the world (a phrase that Whitney said in the beginning of the movie). Nick also didn't like when Bobbi started spending a lot of time with her BFF, Britt (who was played by Bobbi's real life friend Alex Reid). 

 Bobbi's other friend Shannon overdosed and this hit Bobbi hard. But, in the very next scene, Bobbi was seen snorting a line of cocaine. 

Bobbi and Nick start arguing and fighting more as the film continues on, and at one point, she even tells Nick to leave.

 "You don't have shit without me!" she tells him.

 And then, Nick punches Bobbi. This would be the first of many physical fights. 

 Bobbi winds up leaving Nicki after he hits her, but not for long. He swoops right back into her life and promises not to do it again, and he wins her over. 

 After all of the abuse, Nick managed to not go anywhere. He even tried controlling how Bobbi ate, saying he wanted to focus on her image.
During another time, at a family event, Nick got mad after aunt Pat offered to help him manage Bobbi. 

 "I can take care of Kristy," an overprotective Nick says to Pat. "You want to get in the middle of everything but you can't break us apart because we're married now."

 Although Nick was known to through the marriage term around, him and Bobbi never officially got married. 

 Pat said she would help Bobbi, but not if Nick was involved, and of course, Bobbi defended Nick.

 "Nick has issues... and now he has this naive young woman who inherited a lot of money," Pat warned Bobbi. 

 But, Bobbi didn't want to hear it and she fell out with her aunt. 

 Bobbi and Nick also met up with her father to have lunch and it doesn't take long for Bobby Brown to start getting weird vibes from Nick.

 "Wassup with that guy? Your brothers were saying he's talking trash all on social media," Bobby ask.

Once again, Bobbi sticks up for her man, and she swears they have a special bond just like her parents. 

 The film briefly mentions one of Bobbi's career accomplishments, her acting debut in For Better or Worse. Unfortunately her acting career and her music career dreams are all short lived. Us viewers know how this film ends and I had enough of watching this sad, downward spiral of Bobbi Kristina's life. 

 Towards the end of the movie, while packing her suitcase, Bobbi spots a condom wrapper on the floor. After she confronts Nick about it and accuses him of cheating, the two start arguing, yet again, and Bobbi yells out that she'll move to Los Angeles to pursue her music career with or without him. This sets Nick OFF! He chases Bobbi upstairs and yells out, "you can't do nothing without me."

 The two start yelling back and forth in each other's face as their argument becomes inaudible and music plays with these lyrics standing out: "I cannot tell, if I'm ready to go this time... cause this is my final hour ..."

 Nick hits Bobbi, knocking her to the floor and he kicks her while she's down on the ground. She manages to crawl into the bathroom and lock herself in as Nick continues to bang on the door and pulls at the door handle. 

 A frightened Bobbi crawls up by the bathtub on the floor and cries out (inaudible words). At the very end, we see her look up at the door as Nick is believed to have busted in the bathroom (which is not shown). 

 The screen goes black and sentences pop up which read:

 'On January 31, 2015, Bobbi Kristina Brown was found face down in her bathtub.'

Bobbi is shown walking in the woods. She looks across the forest and see's the back of her mother, standing there wearing all white. This is presumed to be Whitney in the form as an angel and Bobbi has now joined her mother in heaven. 

 More words pop up on a black screen which reads:

 'After being in a coma for 6 months, Bobbi Kristina joined her mother on July 26, 2015 ... A year later, Nick Gordon was found civilly liable for her death and ordered to pay $36 million to her estate.' 

And, as the story goes, Nick was deemed "legally responsible" for Bobbi's death. Alex Reid (who played Britt in the film) previously blasted Nick and his abusive ways. 

 It was sad to see this young girl mourning the loss of her mother and it seemed like she was alone a lot while suffering from physical and emotional abuse from Nick who was only looking out for himself. The end of the movie made me angry at Nick all over again as the film lowkey confirmed that Nick killed Kristina. 
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