Burlesque

Director: Steven Antin
Writer: Steven Antin
Starring: Cher, Christina Aguilera
Release Date: November 24, 2010
Length: 1 hour 59 minutes

This semi-musical film has Christina Aguilera in her first starring role as the lead and the legendary Cher in her first film in fourteen years. The story takes place in L.A. in an old Burlesque club. Can you already guess the plot? Maybe you could guess the entire storyline from start to finish if I told you that Aguilera oddly enough plays a small town girl with a big dream and Cher surprisingly plays herself with a different name. How do the other three stars of the film, Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet, and Kristin Bell fit into this movie then? Well, there needs to be a love interest – Cam Gigandet, a self-absorbed bitchy rival – Kristin Bell, and a sassy gay best friend for Cher – Stanley Tucci. With all that put together, you’ve got yourself one original movie. That was obviously not the goal of this movie being made though. It is no surprise to everyone, including probably the people who worked on the film, that Burlesque’s writing from the characters to the dialogue to the situations, is terrible. That doesn’t stop everyone from singing and dancing though, which provides the real entertainment for this movie. Besides the fact that I could pick out almost every scene, if not then the conversation, taken from another movie, I found myself diving further and further into a real guilty pleasure that this movie is. The bad script can also sometimes be hidden by the great acting of Cher, Tucci and even Aguilera herself. No one would have cast her in the lead role if she couldn’t act and she really does carry the movie quite well. Aguilera makes a great innocent small town girl we’ve seen a thousand times but adds a certain cute freshness that only a first time actor can hold. Her voice and singing is, of course, a whole other story. The upbeat jazzy songs of Burlesque suit her strong voice perfectly and are wonderful to listen to. She even shares a cute romance with Twilight star Cam Gigandet, as the bartender Jack of the club. Writer/director Steven Antin doesn’t seem to have the intention of making an authentic Oscar winning film but he makes one of the most fun enjoyable movies of the year with fantastic song and dance performances while managing to cast everyone perfectly with a comeback from Cher and a breakout for Christina Aguilera. If you have any interest in all, go see the best guilty pleasure movie of the year.