Finally, the way this film was written was nothing short of disgraceful. I don't believe that Jackson, known to have been a shrewd businessman, would have been quite as naive about how the adult world works as he was made out to be in this film. I won't argue that he was troubled and may have been a few fries short of a value meal, but here, he was portrayed as something close to mentally disabled. This film's characterization of Jackson bothered me a little, too. How can you effectively tell a story about him without his music? I understand that they were unable to secure the rights to it with this being a low-budget, unauthorized production it seems, though, that if you can't have the man's music in a film about him, you might as well pack it up and go home, because you're missing out on an extremely important part of his life story. Also, the absence of Jackson's music was a huge loss. Very few of the actors looked like the people they were supposed to portray, most egregiously those playing Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Jackson, and Diana Ross. That said.there was very little else here that worked. These successful points are enough to keep Man in the Mirror away from 1-star status. That really came across in this film Flex Anderson and Krista Rae had decent enough chemistry to pull it off.
I will not comment on whether I believe the marriage was a sham, but by many accounts, it was a relationship where care and affection existed between the two parties involved. Second was the sequence depicting the courtship of Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley.
I feel that this contributed a certain authenticity that was *severely* lacking throughout the rest of the film. First was the use of actual fan footage and interviews at certain points in the film, especially in the scenes depicting the first set of child molestation allegations. Before getting into the meat of my thoughts on this biopic, I have to say that there are two things I found effective. This is a low-quality film biography of one of the most iconic performers of all time. The main word that comes to mind when considering this film is "dodgy".