DAGO GONZALES, JONAS AKERLUND

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBB.5. 

USA, 2005.  Lucky Lou Productions, Maverick Films, River Road Entertainment.  Cinematography by Eric Broms.  Produced by Susan Applegate, Angela Becker, Shelli Jury, Greg Panteix, Felipe Pimiento.  Film Editing by Jonas Akerlund.  

Madonna fans will hit the roof enjoying this immensely fun documentary that details the singer’s experiences during her Re-Invention tour of 2004.  Much like Truth Or Dare fourteen years earlier, it depicts the behind-the-scenes madness in black-and-white before switching to eye-popping colour for the concert clips, though this time the pace is enhanced by director Jonas Akerlund’s editing style. The Queen Of Pop herself is much more relaxed and friendly than she was last time around, letting us in to her private life with lots of great footage of her precocious children and wiseass husband Guy Ritchie, plus inviting us to further understand her personal journey to self-fulfillment through the study of Kabbalah. Where the film falters is not showing enough concert footage, and indulging in a haphazardly tacked-on closing sequence that deals with Madonna’s trip to Israel at the end of her tour. While it is a great opportunity for her to explain her interest in Kabbalah and challenge the tabloid take on her as a nutty voodoo priestess, the sequence lacks the energy that her music and her dancers’ adorable personalities gave the preceding footage. No biggie though, the film is still a great experience and Madonna herself is irresistible when on stage and infectiously likable when off it.