"This Is it," Michael Jackson told his 粉丝 in London, announcing his forthcoming 音乐会 tour. "This is the final curtain call." The curtain fell sooner than expected. What is left is this extraordinary documentary, nothing at all like what I was expecting to see. Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied 由 music. Michael Jackson was something else.

The film has been assembled from rehearsals from April through June 2009 for a 音乐会 tour scheduled for this summer. The footage was "captured 由 a few cameras," an opening screen tells...