Review: I Am: Céline Dion is more than the story of Dion’s illness

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NEW YORK — I Am: Celine Dion is not the definitive Céline Dion film, and not just because it’s missing an accent. It doesn’t fully capture the strange, strangely captivating story of one of the most influential pop stars of the past 30 years.

But director Irene Taylor’s film comes closer to explaining notre Céline nationale than anything we’ve seen until now. Given the mega-hyped promotional buildup — with specials on NBC, CBC, TVA and elsewhere — I was expecting a film that was primarily focused on the Québécois superstar’s battle with the rare neurological illness stiff person syndrome.

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And that is the most significant part of this film, which premieres on Amazon Prime June 25 and is playing in select theatres across North America this weekend. But Taylor’s 102-minute documentary is much more than that.

It’s Céline’s story — the unlikely tale of this kid from Charlemagne who became one of the biggest stars in the world in the ’90s and who has more recently dealt with a health scare that threatens to take away the thing that means the most to her: performing in front of her beloved fans.

A lot of stars talk about their fans being their raison d’être. Dion actually believes it.

Stiff person syndrome is a debilitating illness that causes muscle spasms so intense they’ve broken Dion’s ribs and led her to take dangerous amounts of valium. Still there she was Monday evening in New York City, spending a full hour talking to journalists on the red carpet for the world premiere of I Am: Celine Dion at the Alice Tully Hall on Broadway because she knows that talking to us journos is how you talk to your public.

“This is by far the biggest crowd I’ve had in a few years,” said Dion in her remarks before the film. She hasn’t toured since 2020.

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One woman shouted, “We love you!” It wasn’t the last time that happened over the course of the soirée.

“Thanks to you my fans,” Dion said. “Your presence in my journey has been a gift beyond measure. Your neverending love and your support over all these years has brought me to this moment.”

Then she went off on one of those stream of consciousness moments that only Dion can pull off, suggesting that she was known for giving apples to her fans but that actually she was the apple tree. She made a joke, comparing herself to an apple in the Big Apple. Only Dion talks like this.

“I don’t want you to wait in line any more if I don’t have any shiny apples,” said Dion. “A couple of days ago, I saw a message from a fan and it said, ‘We’re here for the tree.’ I cannot believe how fortunate I am to have my fans. ”

I Am: Celine Dion is a more full biography of Dion than we’ve been led to expect. It tells the whole Biblical story of La Dion. The last of 14 children born to Thérèse and Adhémar Dion in Charlemagne, just off the eastern tip of the island of Montreal. It charts her rise from these humble beginnings to international stardom; much of this part of the film will be very familiar to Quebec viewers.

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At one point, we see her telling her kids, “I travelled the world but I didn’t really see anything. That’s called the price you pay.” And when I heard that, I thought, “Now there’s an idea worth exploring. But that’s not the focus here.”

It’s about how that incredible career was derailed by a terrible illness. She says, “My voice was the conductor of my life.” Then suddenly she couldn’t sing like she used to. Some days she could barely walk around her opulent house in Las Vegas.

Many of the details about stiff person syndrome have already been aired in some detail in TV interviews. What makes this riveting is the access Taylor got. She brings you right into Dion’s life, showing us the close connection with her three sons and bringing us uncomfortably close to the harrowing times she’s lived through in recent years.

There is a scene very late in the film that is almost impossible to watch as Dion goes into a full-body seizure. It’s heart-wrenching.

Taylor’s film meanders off course in the middle, spending several minutes on Dion’s participation in a tribute show to Australian singer John Farnham, a section that has little relevance to the film. And it’s inconsistent. For example, there’s only one short section on René Angélil, a brief snapshot of their complex relationship.

But it really does a bang-up job of capturing Dion. You see how funny she can be. How she has no filter. How she has way too many shoes. How she lives for her fans.

And they live for her. Carissa Gurgul and her older brother Collin had come in from East Berlin, Penn., to catch a glimpse of their idol and they weren’t disappointed, though they didn’t have tickets to the screening.

“We didn’t know if there would be another day,” Carissa said.

“She’s always beyond grateful to her fans,” added Collin. “And we’re so happy to see her here.”

Dion fans know all about The Power of Love.

bkelly@postmedia.com

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