Burlesque: Movie Review & Official Trailer [Courtesy: www.shockya.com]

Burlesque, originally uploaded by Portal MTV.

There has been alot of talk about this film, Burlesque, & finally it has been released in South Africa yesterday.

Directed By: Steve Antin

It’s great to put your assets to good use, but if
you want your film to offer an entire package,
other elements need to be considered. In the case
of Burlesque, writer-director Steve Antin has
Christina Aguilera on the brain and nothing more.

Clearly this tunnel vision works well when it
come to vocals, but just about every other
component is practically ignored.

Burlesque stars Aguilera as Ali, a small-town
waitress who’s fed up with her minimal existence
and craves the spotlight. She follows her dreams
straight to Los Angeles, but quickly learns that a
city change doesn’t mean instant success.

After a
number of failed auditions, Ali comes across The
Burlesque, a nightclub with “The best views on
the Sunset Strip.” The place is owned and run by
Tess (Cher) with the help of her ex-husband Vince
(Peter Gallagher) and loyal assistant Sean (Stanley
Tucci). A barrage of girls hit the stage each night
to wow the crowd with dance and lip-synching
routines. Unfortunately, even there, a job doesn’t
come easy.

After being rejected by Tess, Ali takes
it upon herself to go to work for the bartender,
Jack (Cam Gigandet).
Their relationship goes from business to personal
when her apartment is ransacked and she’s
forced to bunk down at his place. The only thing
stifling this budding romance is Jack’s fiancée
who happens to be out of town for a few
months. As things heat up at home, they heat up
at work, too.

Ali finally gets her chance to audition
to dance on stage and makes the cut. When a
music malfunction mutes the vocals, Ali takes it
upon herself to sing the tune and blows away not
only the audience, but Tess as well.
The only thing the slightest bit fresh about
Burlesque is well, Burlesque. The club makes for
a fantastic setting and the style of entertainment is
absolutely mesmerizing, but Antin completely
dilutes the concept with every “small town gal
moving to the big city” cliché imaginable. Not
only is Ali a naïve girl from Iowa, she’s a
struggling waitress who’s seemingly all alone in
this big world and happens to harbor an
immense amount of talent that, of course, is
discovered and finally appreciated. Can you say
Coyote Ugly? In fact, the scene during which Ali
returns home to find her apartment in ruins and
secret stash of cash missing is eerily similar to
poor Violet Sandford’s situation in that 2000 film.

Keeping with the Coyote Ugly connection, Tess is
basically the bar owner Lil, but with a much
deeper voice and a plastic face. And we can’t
forget our quintessential bitch determined to
make the newcomer’s assimilation as difficult as
possible. In Coyote Ugly it was Rachel and in
Burlesque we get Kristen Bell as Nikki.
It’s one thing to reuse an overused concept, but
at least make some sort of attempt to spice it up a
bit. The only effort Antin seems to have made
was setting his film in the club. Sadly, there’s just
so long the visuals are able to hold your attention.
The story is painfully predictable and not
engaging in the least and that latter point is largely
due to the miscast lead.
Yes, Aguilera is a great musical performer, but
she can’t act. Sitting through Burlesque is kind of
like having whiplash every ten minutes. Just
when the story is about to put you to sleep, she
belts out an outrageous tune accompanied by a
mesmerizing dance routine. There are two
slower ballads at the end of the film that flop due
to their connection to the story, but otherwise,
every song is quite enjoyable. However, what
keeps these moments merely enjoyable and not
wildly entertaining is poor camerawork.

You’d
think Antin’s experience directing music videos
would have made this portion of the project
easy, but it’s the musical moments that are the
most awkwardly shot and edited parts of the
film. In fact, some tunes are so poorly covered,
it’s distracting.
Amongst these gargantuan problems, Burlesque
has a few that could have been easy fixes. First
off, there’s Aguilera. A song in the film featuring
the singer? Fine, but she is not a leading actress.
Antin had a perfectly capable star right on his set,
Bell. She’s absolutely wasted in the role of Nikki,
the club’s star dancer with a drinking problem.
Even though her character is weakly represented
throughout the film, Bell manages to make more
of a connection to the audience than Aguilera
who’s on the screen 90% of the time. Cher, on
the other hand, fairs a little better. It’s actually
quite impressive that Cher can express so much
emotion without moving her facial muscles. She
makes for a great stern yet motherly figure and
her relationship with her employees is quite
endearing.

Antin certainly tries and succeeds in some
respects, but overall, this is just a cheap excuse
for a musical. Burlesque actually seems to suffer
from the same problem most 3D films grapple
with, an overreliance on the added element,
which ultimately turns it into a gimmick. Musicals
are supposed to incorporate the songs into the
film in a way that they enhance the story.

Perhaps this is just because the story is so awful,
but in Burlesque, the tunes seem to be there
solely for entertainment and nothing more.
Everything in this film is delivered at face value.
It’s the story of a small town girl moving to LA,
it’s a musical and it features two singing stars. As
long as you don’t mind depth being devoid from
this equation, Burlesque can offer some mindless
entertainment for 100 minutes, but nothing more.

Technical: C-
Acting: B-
Story: D+
Overall: C-

By Perri Nemiroff