Burlesque
Starring Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci, Kristen Bell and Cam Gigandet.
The movie follows the usual themes small town girl wants to make it big so she heads for Hollywood where she stumbles upon a Burlesque house. Wowed by the woman and club she persists at badgering the owner until she finally gets a shot at standing on that stage. She gets her chance and it’s all looking up, then the bitchy original star gets jealous tries to sabotage her it back fires and our protagonist finds herself pelted into stardom. There are guy issues of course and this all plays into the story, as does the very possible threat of the owner losing the club but all comes out peachy in the end.
My overly dry synopsis aside, I really, really enjoyed this movie. The story itself while not the most original of tales is still one that we all like to hear, what from a story point of view helped this movie stand out a little from the pack was the fact Aly (played by Christina Aguilera) is believable! More often than not in these types of stories we find ourselves given a protagonist that is either 1.blissfully naive and who takes on the worlds with their own version of country sweetness (insert gag noise here) or 2. A protagonist that has seen too much and sometimes comes off as wise beyond their years and a seemingly odd mix of pessimist meets optimist. I found the character of Aly however in this movie to be quite relatable, yes she has a certain sweetness about her but that’s only emphasised by her sass. She knows how to hold herself, she struggles but she persists, she has equal levels sweet young girl trying to make her mark as she does sassy woman who work for everything she wants.
I thought it was extremely well acted, with amazing performances from most of the cast. It has been an awful long time since I’ve seen Cher on screen, and I personally think she did a wonderful job as Tess the Burlesque owner. She had a really strong passionate character in Tess and she carried it out beautifully. Another stand out, as always, was Stanley Tucci. I don’t what it is about Stanley Tucci but I have always found him so easy to watch. He plays Sean, Tess’s offsider and best friend, he helps with the running of the show and continuous movements backstage, as well as being the voice of reason and wisdom to those around him and a shoulder to lean on. Tucci plays these types of characters so undoubtedly well, with his personal type of charm and charisma he always manages to bring alive these smart-aleck, sarcastic voices of reason that you can’t help but find so endearing and watchable. As for Christina Aguilera as the main star Aly, i think she chose exactly the sort of film that suited her for a debut into acting, while its sometimes hard to focus on her acting chops over those powerful pipes she did an incredibly good job at making her character real, likeable and not just a typical small town girl searching for her big shot.
As a musical, this movie leaves a lot to be desired- if you’re looking for something truly ground-breaking with each number standing out and standing on its own you will come away disappointed. There was only really one stand out number for me and that was Cher singing “Last of Me”, it was the only number that completely stood out for me. Although that is not to say the other numbers aren’t good, they just aren’t as withstanding. The music, while it is fun and upbeat and it definitely lives you happy and you do enjoy it while it’s there, it doesn’t leave you aching for more, it doesn’t leave you with the songs stuck so firmly in your memory it’s hard to shake them, which honestly all great musicals have the ability to do.
So while it won’t be named one of the greatest musicals of recent years, it’s most certain worth a look at! If you’re interested in a fun, feisty movie to pass an afternoon then I definitely recommend it to both girls the guys even if the only reason you can drag a male companion along is because for majority of the movie most of the cast are barely clad in burlesque outfits.
I give it 3 out of 5.
