An innocent popcorn pleasure, all the way up to that over-the-top scene on Oscar night.

Just about everything that can go wrong with this film does, and yet it's compulsively watchable. (So is a train wreck.)

Houston's face, as she loses herself in the melody out there on a quiet porch in the woods, is a reminder of all she gave to this role, and this movie - and why it's always worth rewatching.

Houston is a revelation as the strong-willed, free-spirited, but lonely diva and single mother-of-one more concerned for her eight-year-old son's safety than her own.