BURLESQUE (2010)

Written & Directed by Steven Antin

Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA.  November 29, 2010 1:45PM



The filmed musical has always been a beloved staple of Hollywood, reliably making a decent return on investment for the studios since the very beginning of the sound era. Yet over time, the popularity of the genre began to wane. By 1969, the film version of the musical, “Hello Dolly”, based on the very successful and popular Broadway show, was released. The movie turned out to be a very expensive flop and combined with another costly bust, "Dr. Doolittle" two years earlier, this pretty much made Hollywood extremely squeamish about producing big budget, filmed musical movies.

But Hollywood being Hollywood, there would be more attempts made to bring musicals to the screen over the years following this disastrous period. Only a handful would be considered modest successes ("Cabaret", "Tommy"). Most of the films made based on hit musical stage shows ("Annie", "The Wiz", "A Chorus Line", "Hair") ended up in the cinematic graveyard.

Yet following the unexpected success of "Chicago", the film of the Broadway show that grossed over three hundred million dollars worldwide and won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2002, the Hollywood musical was reborn.

Now comes "Burlesque", an original musical that is heavy on glitter and glamour yet lighter on coherence and substance. The film borrows from several screen musicals from the past but most obviously from "Chicago". From the slick choreography to the skimpy costumes but mainly by keeping all of musical numbers confined to being performed on a stage, the aim of “Burlesque” is to widely appeal to modern audiences that don't seem to be comfortable with people just breaking out in song and dancing in the middle of the street.

The story begins where we meet Ali (Christina Aguilera), a young girl from small town Iowa who decides in the middle of her shift of her waitress job to move to the land of dreams and opportunity: Los Angeles. After arriving in the big city and unsure of what she's going to do, Ali stumbles into a club, the Burlesque Lounge where she is mesmerized by scantily clad young women, not exactly strippers but certainly not much more than dancers, performing musical numbers on stage. Ali knows this is exactly what she was born to do, so she begs the owner of the club for a job. But Tess (Cher) is not at all impressed. Ali befriends Jack (Cam Gigandet), a handsome bartender at the lounge who decides to hire Ali as a waitress.

Tess has been having financial problems with the club which her ex-husband, Vince (Peter Gallagher) who is part owner, keeps reminding her. Luckily, she has Sean (Stanley Tucci), her gay stage manager and confidant, to reassure her that everything will work out. Vince's solution is to sell the club to Marcus Gerber (Eric Dane), a real estate investor but Tess refuses.

Ali is finally given an audition but after a rough start, she is able to convince Tess to hire her as a dancer. The star of the main show at the Burlesque Lounge is Nikki (Kristen Bell), an over confident diva with a drinking problem. After Nikki is late once again, Tess decides to make Ali the lead performer. However, Nikki does not take this decision well. Before Ali's debut show, Nikki sabotages the recording that the performers lip-synch to. Yet as Sean begins to lower the curtain on the ruined performance, Ali belts out a song live, saving the show.

Ali and Jack are attracted to each other but because of his girlfriend, he doesn't act on it. Ali begins seeing Marcus, who is also kind of seeing Nikki. Tess needs to come up a lot of money fast  or she's going to lose the club. Ali devises a plan for a show that could earn them some quick cash. Will it work and will Ali and Jack ever get together to dance the night fantastic?

Antin, an actor, writer and stuntman, has made his first feature film and while you shouldn't waste any time trying to search for any type of logic, "Burlesque" is a good looking and entertaining movie. The film successfully comes across as the perfect fantasy of what Los Angeles would be like if gay men ruled the world.

Cher has returned to the screen, after a long absence, in which the pop music star turned actor appears in, surprisingly, her first actual musical. The well-preserved, Oscar-winning actress performs two songs in a part that doesn't really require her to do much more than be CHER. However, that is perfectly fine with me. She does this very well and watching this legend on screen always brings me joy.

Ms Aguilera certainly doesn't embarrass herself in her acting debut and it was very wise to make it a musical. Obviously, her strength in the film is when she is singing and dancing but as far as her as an actress, I think I would need to see her performing in a non-musical to be able to form an accurate assessment. I would have completely dismissed Mariah Carey as an actor until she was put in the hands of a director who knew how to draw out a performance from her in her supporting role in "Precious".

Mr. Gigandet, wearing less clothing than all of the girls in the film, is the perfect eye candy, Alan Cumming is completely wasted as the doorman and Mr.Tucci, who I adore, is the saving grace of the movie who adds his charm and comic timing to help elevate "Burlesque" whenever he appears.

"Burlesque" is a fun, campy, musical romp that requires nothing more from a viewer than to put your brain on pause, sit back and soak up all of the colorfully, glitzy atmosphere.