“Great enthusiasm, terrible timing,” says Sean (Stanley Tucci) to Ali (Christina Aguilera) as she hounds him backstage, begging for a job in Steven Antin’s latest, “Burlesque.” This line adequately sums up the film – it’s an enthusiastic musical featuring very catchy music, but it fails to match that with a good plot or decent writing.
The movie centers on Alice “Ali” Rose (Aguilera), an aspiring performer from a small Iowa town who drops everything to move to L.A. to pursue her dream. There, she quickly happens upon Burlesque, an upscale but faltering Burlesque theater run by sassy former star Tess (Cher). As Ali works her way up at the theater, first as a waitress and eventually as a dancer, Tess struggles to keep the theater afloat after amassing enormous debt. Ali also struggles with her newfound fame, made even more troublesome by her budding relationship with her new roommate, Marcus (Cam Gigandet).
The plot is incredibly cliché, but serves its purpose as a springboard for the movie’s many musical numbers, which are appropriately glitzy and entertaining. Most of the songs feature Aguilera, whose powerhouse vocals lend the dance scenes tons of energy and attitude.
Although Aguilera successfully carries the musical numbers, her attempts at acting are sub-par at best. Her character swings between kind-hearted, ambitious and obnoxious from scene to scene, a fact only enhanced by Aguilera’s awkward timing.
Cher, on the other hand, is enjoyable as an aging performer fighting to retain ownership of the club. She brings natural energy and snark to the role, and is much more believable in dramatic moments than Aguilera.
Meanwhile, an underused Stanley Tucci slips comfortably back into his “The Devil Wears Prada” role as the bitchy gay assistant with a heart of gold. His barbed one-liners aren’t as sharp as they were in “Prada,” but that’s clearly the fault of writing, not acting. Even with sub-par material, Tucci is a breath of fresh air among the rest of the overdramatic cast.
The original music in “Burlesque” is quite catchy, even if most of the songs are carried by Aguilera’s excellent, enthusiastic vocal performance. She shines especially in “Express,” an upbeat track featured in the middle of the film. However, the original music is awkwardly juxtaposed with some generic pop hits and classics like “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” that make the soundtrack seem unoriginal at times.
“Burlesque” doesn’t shy away from the obvious influence of many other films, which often makes it seem amateurish and cliché in comparison. The film strives for the glitz and drama of Rob Marshall’s “Chicago,” while falling short of “Chicago’s” well-done satire of celebrity and scandal. It also tries to recreate the fantasy of Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!” without the rich story and setting that made that film so great. It even fails to live up to “Showgirls” in terms of its quality as a “so-bad-it’s-good” film. While “Showgirls” reveled in off-the-wall plots and terrible acting that made it a cult classic, “Burlesque” awkwardly straddles the line between serious musical and campy escapist film, leaving viewers in a decent but far-from-classic no man’s land.