Olivia Newton John - Hopelessly Devoted To You (2018)

Ratings: ⭐⭐⭐

This two parts mini TV series was first broadcast in Australia in 2018. I only just came across this and being an ardent fan of Olivia Newton John, my curiosity for this was naturally high and I could not wait to watch. This despite the fact that this biopic was apparently not authorised by Olivia and the generally poor reviews and rather unpleasant comments left by ONJ fans in its link in the Internet Movie Database website. God knows when or if a proper and authorised version will be made so bugger the naysayers and let me in.

Firstly, I have to admit that this was made in a pretty straight forward and uncreative manner, by telling us ONJ's life story as a series of snapshots of various events and milestones in her well documented remarkable life (so far) in chronological order. One gets the feeling that some of these scenes appear simply to include a particular event of highlight in her career but the linear and unrelated manner in which they were conveyed meant that they often failed to connect in the overall flow. Hence, we can easily edit out individual scenes without affecting the movie whatsoever! Delta Goodrem who plays the lead here is also sadly nowhere nearly as talented or beautiful as ONJ. However, in her defense I think she did put on an effort and she at least had a decent voice to carry the songs without murdering them. Watching her had the effect of making me want to watch Grease and Xanadu again and to get my hands on a copy of Olivia's authorised autobiography book, Don't Stop Believing. 

The real Olivia Newton John here with Delta Goodrem. Even though the biopic was not authorised by Olivia, she remains in good terms with Delta

So given all the negative comments so far, why you may ask did I still give this a strong 3 stars rating? The truth is despite all its shortcomings, I was still mesmerised by the series and enjoyed it for nostalgic reasons. Olivia Newton John's life story can stand on its own merits and will be fascinating to watch even when weakly presented. The generous inclusion of many of ONJ's famous hits herekept the energy level high. The recreation of the sets of Grease, Xanadu and the music video for Physical were beautifully and lovingly done, and for me, provided some of the guilty pleasures of the series. While Delta Goodrem is no Olivia, she did decent versions of her songs which brought back fond memories for me. At times her body language and posture did very much reminded me Olivia. I loved the songs, I loved the music, and I love ONJ, and these are reasons enough for me to be grateful for this biopic for now. I however, do agree with many of the complaining fans that ONJ deserves a way better treatment than this and look forward to that hopefully happening someday.