Leaving Neverland (2019)

Director Dan Reed (center) flanked by his documentary subjects, abuse victims 

Wade Robson (left) and James Safechuck (right)

The controversial HBO documentary Leaving Neverland is basically a four hours testimony of two adult males who relates their experiences as child abuse victims of Michael Jackson when they were as young as just 5 (for Robson) and 10 (for Safechuck). The stories these two men shared to the camera together with inputs from their family members were very similar, displaying a pattern of how Michael Jackson would pray on the very young and innocent fans whom he takes a personal liking to during his years as a global superstar. It is easy for us to judge a person as good or bad, black or white, but Michael Jackson is no ordinary human being, and looking at this documentary, one can't help but have mixed feelings towards the man. Indeed, his two accusers said "The abuse didn't feel strange because he was like a god". Wade Robson, who went on to become a very successful and famous dance choreographer said "Michael Jackson was one of the kindest, most loving people I knew. He helped me tremendously with my career and my creativity ....." but ... "He also sexually abused me for seven years".

I have to admit it is unclear to me what motivates making these accusations so many years later by the now adult married accusers. The credibility of their case is somewhat threatened by the fact that both of them had in fact testified in court that they were NOT abused by Jackson many years ago in support for Jackson when he was accused of child sexual abuse by parents of other children. Leaving Neverland is definitely shocking to most of us and kinds of fills in the details to what we have suspected of all these years. If anything coming out with this documentary would only bring up all the bad feelings and mental scars rather than provide closure to their claims of depression and anxiety.

Even though the documentary provides convincing and detail accounts of what has happened many years ago, it was presented in a one sided manner with interviews confined solely with the accusers and their immediate family members. The four hours seem overly long as many points are repeated and emphasised over and over again. While the focus on the wrong was squarely on Jackson, I feel the parents of these abused children have clearly failed and should share a large portion of the blame. Money and pay out to keep silent during early accusations when Michael Jackson was still alive were merely hinted at. If the accusers chose to sue Jackson now after so many years, they should also consider suing their own parents.

So is this worth watching? Only if you are prepared to sit through 4 hours for something which you can probably learn by reading from any review or recent article that came out related to the controversy and uproar generated from this documentary.