Both allege in stoic but chilling fashion about Jackson’s gradually escalating sexual contact, accompanied by Jackson allegedly pressuring them not to divulge what was happening.Īlternating between the pair’s stories, director Dan Reed follows their personal journeys into adulthood, methodically addressing specific incidents from multiple perspectives, including those of family members. Safechuck, now 41, and Robson, 36, came into contact with Jackson professionally – Safechuck at age eight, when he appeared with him in a 1986 Pepsi commercial and Robson at age five, after winning a dance-alike contest when Jackson performed in Brisbane, Australia.Ībout 40 minutes elapse before the participants begin to lay out the most disturbing allegations, and from then on, “Leaving Neverland” is not easy to watch. (CNN and HBO share parent company WarnerMedia.) Yet in the face of the detailed recollections assiduously laid out by Wade Robson, James “Jimmy” Safechuck and their families over this four-hour HBO documentary, anyone inclined to dismiss these charges out of hand might be forced to reconsider. The Jackson family has already fired back at the film after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, calling it a “public lynching” and Jackson’s accusers “admitted liars,” in reference to sworn statements by both while Jackson was alive that he did not molest them. The late pop star’s staunchest defenders have long pushed back against such allegations, and it’s hard to imagine much shaking those convictions.
It’s an unsettling tale of money, fame and seduction, insidiously marshalled not just at young boys but their equally star-struck parents. “Leaving Neverland” is about dreams turned to nightmares, featuring twin accounts of Michael Jackson’s alleged sexual predation that derive power and credibility from their strikingly similar parallels.
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