Review: ‘Céline: Through the Eyes of the World’

As anyone with a passing knowledge of Céline Dion’s lung-busting ballads could guess, a finely cultivated sense of irony is not among her many gifts. Even so, after watching “Céline: Through the Eyes of the World,” it’s hard to fathom the lack of self-awareness that went into calling her 2008 worldwide jaunt the Taking Chances tour.

A breezy, briskly edited chronicle of Dion’s tour, Stéphane Laporte’s mild hagiography crams a few timid peeks behind the scenes of her elaborately choreographed spectacle between concert snippets and gushing fan testimonials. But rather than capturing a restless star pushing at her own boundaries, “Through the Eyes of the World” finds Dion sitting pretty, on top of the world and happy to stay there.

The movie’s subtitle, as well as an expansive itinerary that takes the crew from Cape Town to Shanghai, makes an argument for Dion as a global, even world-historical, figure. Cross-cut concert scenes meld together audiences from Paris and Macau, Omaha and Seoul, united in their adulation of Dion’s matchless voice. The film makes sure to show Dion stepping off the campaign trail to visit Nazi concentration camps and Nelson Mandela’s island prison, but it has little interest in her fans beyond their florid encomiums. In Dubai, Laporte trains his camera on a Muslim woman whose comments are edited down to a damp squib: “I love her and I love all her songs.”

The offstage goings-on are hardly more enlightening. Dion, we learn, is a closet cut-up who likes pulling funny faces, is kind to her dancers, and loves to spend time with her husband/manager René Angelil and their son, René-Charles. Strained vocal chords provide a few moments of suspense toward the end of the film but, for the most part, the pressing crises involve whether Dion will pick a new dress to be part of her stage wardrobe.

Screening eight times over the course of a week and a half, “Through the Eyes of the World” is intended to whet appetites for Dion’s upcoming tour, its abrupt ending serving as a setup for the imminent sequel. But although there’s ample opportunity for Dion to show off her seamless multi-octave range, few songs are presented from start to finish, and those that are lack any hint of live ambience. Some concert movies make you feel like you have the best seat in the house; this one plants you squarely in front of the Jumbotron.

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