Director: Steve Antin
Starring: Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci
Just as like going to karaoke with your mates, sometimes a bad musical can be fun. A certain element of guilty pleasure can be derived from watching over-choreographed songs and action so kitsch you shoudl receive a pink wedding cake when you buy your entrance ticket. Burlesque is one of those films. After all, it arrives bragging that Cher has come out of screen retirement after a seven-year hiatus and it's the acting debut of the pop star Christina Aguilera, who also contributes three new songs to the soundtrack. The plot seems like it was conceived in a nightclub while the scriptwriters were watching a particularly bad cabaret act. A young waitress (Aguilera) quits her job and catches a bus to Los Angeles where she dreams of making it big as a burlesque dancer. She arrives at a club run by Cher that is close to going bankrupt, and instead of being allowed to sing and dance gets a job at the nightclub bar run by a hunky metrosexual who wears eyeliner (Cam Gigandet). Everyone is an emotional wreck and side plots involve unrequited love, ex-husbands, nasty property developers and frustrated dancers. The plot is seldom given room to breathe between the big numbers which, for the most part, disappoint. Yet there is a certain gusto to the performances that ensures that there is never a dull moment, even if most of the time the narrative is as predictable as it is banal and one finds oneself laughing at the movie rather than with it.
