While the wisdom of Whitney's premise is debatable, Bassett's execution is confident and thoughtful.

While neither overly salacious or reverent, Whitney ... lacks dynamism in telling the tale of a very dynamic life, and falls short of illuminating anything about Houston that both diehard fans and casual observers of pop culture didn't already know.

Working from a script by Shem Bitterman, Bassett manages to make both of her leads relatively sympathetic, and to keep the story moving even when not a lot is happening.