All Sparkly and Fun ~ Movie Review of ‘Burlesque’

‘Burlesque’ is the sort of film that audiences like and movie critics hate except for me, who like you has to pay for most of the films I see at the multiplex.  My expectations were as follows, ‘Burlesque’ was going to be cheesy almost to the point that it would be unwatchable, much like ‘Showgirls’.  Cher would be fun to watch but I would wonder if the director had noticed that Christina Aguilera could sing but not act.  Then I thought that in fifteen or twenty years ‘Burlesque’ would become a cult classic.  Yet, I still wanted to see it even though I wasn’t prepared for was liking it as much as I did. 

 

                The first thing I want to address is Christina Aguilera.  I might be going out on a limb, but I imagine that many people interested in watching ‘Burlesque’ have a preconceived notion about her formed from various gossip pages, media outlets, and frankly, some of her tacky fashion choices.  I don’t think that many people would argue that she has a better set of pipes than most singers near her age and fame level, but what the others seem to have and she appears not to have, is a projection of a sense of self.  For instance, Pink’s songs usually have a strong pro woman stance.  Britney Spears was America’s sweetheart, and then became America’s poster child for out of control undiagnosed personality disorders, to now being one of America’s favorite comeback stories.  She doesn’t have Christina’s vocals, but Britney will always be the girl Madonna kissed first at the VMA’s indicating that Mama Madonna was passing along her ‘Material Girl’ crown to the next generation.  Then to really mess things up, Lady Gaga comes along with her massive talent and incredible pop culture performance moments and Aguilera (whose last album bombed and who at one point ‘adopted’ a signature look from a then little known Lady Gaga) is pushed further down the list.  No matter how talented and how hard working, Aguilera always seems to play second fiddle to her shinier peers.  Granted, she has experimented with different looks and different directions with her music, but somehow it usually felt as if she was trying on the new trend after it was abandoned by someone else.  I attended her concert in Kansas City a few years ago and she was fantastic, but I found the preconcert video tinged with desperation.  It was on a loop and it had several of her fans giving testimony on how great and giving Aguilera was.  It felt as if she was trying to prove something to people she didn’t really need to prove anything to – after all, we had paid money to see her perform.  Here’s the other thing as of late, she is going through a divorce and during some of her performances to promote this film she appeared…how should I say this…puffy in her outfits.  Mind you, she doesn’t look fat; she looks like she has gained a few pounds (stress eating I imagine) which is dramatically noticeable when she is wearing a skimpy outfit dancing with very fit girls also in skimpy outfits.  So considering all of the above, I thought Aguilera was going to be able to sing the songs but not delivery on anything else.  However, I was wrong. 

 

                Let’s deal with Cher for a moment.  She is a legend who has a great screen presence.  However, I think after she achieved her Academy Award as Best Actress for ‘Moonstruck’ (1987) she seemed to act as if she had conquered acting and returned to music and farewell tours only sporadically showing up the silver screen.  If ‘Burlesque’ didn’t have Cher (this is her first foray into movie musicals) then it would have collapsed under its own weight.  She brings the heart, the substance, and frankly the star power that a production such as this needs.  She really doesn’t do much besides sing two show stopping tunes and flit around the bar her character owns trading quips with Stanley Tucci, but when she is on screen she dominates it.

 

                I don’t know what the makeup artist and hair stylist (I suspect it was a wig) did with Aguilera but, as my friend noted, she needs to hire them.  She is gorgeous in a way that I would have never believed Christina Aguilera could be.  The costume designer also found clothes that fitted her over inflated plastic chest that didn’t cheapen her appearance even though she is starring in a film about burlesque.  Further, her slimmed down body in the film doesn’t look out of place dancing with professional dancers.

 

                Also appearing in the movie is a brown headed Kristen Bell who was the token bad burlesque girl.  It took me awhile to wrap my mind around Bell, who has starred in various romantic comedies recently, cast as a showgirl, but her dancing passed muster.  Cam Gigandet (he was James “I see you brought a snack” in ‘Twilight’) was Aguilera’s love interest.  I have to say that he was smoking hot and I give him props for walking around in a bowler hat with eyeliner because a role like this in a movie which could have been a spectacular flop might have stopped his career in mid stride.  Peter Gallaher, Eric Dane, Alan Cumming and Julianne Hough (from ‘Dancing with the Stars’) round out the rest of the cast.

 

                ‘Burlesque’ is a complete fantasy film with a plot so watered down that it had the sophistication of a ‘Love Boat’ episode from back in the day.  It doesn’t even pretend to be anything else but a movie about singing and dancing.  The production cost 55 million and most of it was invested in Cher, Aguilera, and sequins.  I was shocked to learn that Diablo Cody wrote the original screenplay and that Susannah Grant (‘Ever After’ and ‘Erin Brockovich’) wrote a revised version, after which Steve Antin (the director) had a hand in the final product.

 

                If you are into musicals than ‘Burlesque’ is your sort of film; it is the type of film that would have been right at home on the MGM lot during the Great Depression.  As long as you can extend your suspension of disbelief to an orphaned girl from Iowa deciding to catch a bus to try her luck at singing and dancing in Hollywood and not New York (which one would think would have more opportunities for an aspiring singer/dancer besides a stripper’s pole) then you are the audience this film is looking for.  Mind you though, you have to come to terms that a burlesque club on the Sunset Strip is on the verge of foreclosure but still manages to produce spectacular stage productions with what seems like a cast of hundreds.  If you can do that, the final test is if you can get down with the idea that Aguilera accepts sleeping on a friend’s couch long after she has the means to afford better.

 

                The music and dancing are wonderful.  You will leave the theater wanting to download or buy the whole CD.  Visually it is a fun film.  I loved the homage and imitation of musicals like ‘Chicago’ and ‘Cabaret’ including Cumming’s tip of the hat to Joel Grey’s ‘Master of Ceremonies’.  ‘Burlesque’ is the sort of movie you should see in the theater with friends, family (it is rated PG-13) or even a date.  It is guaranteed to put a smile on your face as it flirts with the idea that a girl with a heart of gold like Aguilera’s character (Alice Marilyn Rose) is strutting her stuff at a Sunset Strip nightclub with little ambition for anything bigger or better.  Overall, ‘Burlesque’ is a crowd pleaser that delivers where it should while skating over everything else.

 

Westerfield © 2010