Céline Dion

It has always been much easier to criticize things than to build them. I find the degree to which some have criticized this film to be amazing . I thought the film quite good. You cannot expect real people to be captured exactly in film, as exact clones do not exist, and all biographical films are by necessity small sketches, as time is so short. This is a very warm story about a great family and a girl who worked her butt off and captured a dream. Perhaps it would have been more technically accurate to tell the story in French, as the first half of her career was all in French, but then 95% of her fans would not understand it. The actors did a marvelous job of showing us this family. Read the book for detail. It is good, and it was written in French, so you can get the detail there. It would be sad to miss this story. It makes your heart glad.

This film is a disaster, especially if you are a true fan of Celine. Virtually none of the people presented really look like their real-life counterparts. The Dion family is almost completely misrepresented. The mother looks like an upper-middle class suburbanite. Most distressing are the vocal renditions, not only missing the mark in duplicating what was actually there, but doing it in a way that is hardly worthy of comparison to the original, both as a little girl and as a star. I hope they paid Celine plenty for this joke. It will serve her poorly as a memento. I especially disliked the songs done as a teenager. Some of them are exceptional, but not these. Unfortunately, this may keep people from going back and actually listening to the originals, which were great. Finally, her French is almost completely overlooked. Most of her early songs especially were in French. She didn't even know any English until she was about 14/15. Her Anglo-style persona just isn't her!

What a disappointment this movie was. The casting was terrible! There was absolutely no resemblance of the characters to the people they were portraying. Where on earth was the French Canadian connection? Not one accent? We all know where Celine was born and raised and yet her entire heritage was completely missing. It made no sense whatsoever to cast the movie in a way that did not recognize her background. I can understand that whoever backed this movie may have been concerned about too much French Canadian or too much emphasis on the Francophone accent but let's face it, without it the movie bombed anyway.It was a sham. I'm not criticizing the acting - each person would likely be fine in any other roles. I particularly liked Enrico Colantoni as Rene. I'm not surprised the movie wasn't endorsed by Celine Dion. The producers and the director, the casting company were so far off the mark. The time line was off throughout the movie as well. I don't have an ounce of Francophone in me and it made me feel embarrassed for Celine and her family.

I liked it. It got me thinking; otherwise, I wouldn't be writing here. I fell asleep for a few minutes(I was tired; the movie didn't bore me) and suddenly Rene's really bad toupee was replaced with a bald head. What made him take the toupee off? Second question: it says on his bio that Rene married and divorced twice before Celine, not once. Does Celine's mother ever mention that in the movie? Third: I thought the voice-over singer was better than Celine, who's sort of nasaly like Barbara Streisand. Who is Trish O'Brien? I can't find her online.

And now a comment: I love Enrico Colantoni, who played Rene. No matter who he plays, a sleepy lovability surrounds him. He's totally hot in Just Shoot Me!

So, who doesn't know Celine Dion? But we don't all know her back story. Enjoying her music as much as I do, I was interested to know how her career started.

Coming from a musical family, and her brother having recorded an album, it was Celine's dream, too, to record. A series of events lead to her finally landing a recording contract.

I enjoyed Rene Angelil's story, as well - the man who signed Celine and whom she eventually married. The film also shows us Celine's incredible loyalty and dedication. Christine Ghawi gives a good performance as Celine, and Enrico Colantoni stars as Rene.

If you're a fan of Celine Dion, I highly recommend this TV movie. And if for any reason you're not a fan of her music, 'Celine' still makes for an interesting watch.