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With: Cher, Christina Aguilera, Eric Dane, Cam Gigandet, Julianne Hough, Alan Cumming, Peter Gallagher, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci, Dianna Agron, Glynn Turman, David Walton, Terrence Jenkins, Chelsea Traille, Tanee McCall, James Brolin
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Written by: Steve Antin
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Directed by: Steve Antin
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including several suggestive dance routines, partial nudity, language and some thematic material
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Running Time: 100
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Date: 11/24/2010
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Strut Up and Sing
By Jeffrey M. Anderson Christina Aguilera is all about syllables. She has a massive set of pipes and she can really sing lots of notes. Loud. But when it comes to actually tugging at the heartstrings, that's a different story. So for her big screen acting debut, the writer and director Steve Antin -- who is perhaps best known for playing "Rick" in The Last American Virgin (1982) -- has given her a loose remake of Coyote Ugly, but without the charm. Aguilera plays Ali, a small town girl who dreams of singing and strutting on stage. She works her way from waitress to lip-syncing, and eventually shocks everyone by singing for "real" (though she mostly lip-syncs). Oscar-winner Cher is here for backup, in her first real role since Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1999), but she's given some truly horrible dialogue to say; you might have seen her wincing except that her face doesn't move anymore. Only Stanley Tucci manages to breathe a little life into his scenes by -- gasp! -- slowing down and relaxing. As long as Antin can keep his cast of hot girls dancing around in stockings and heels, then the ridiculous plot about losing the club, or the whiny, chiseled boyfriend (Cam Gigandet) with the absent fiancée, the African-American dancer named "Coco" (no joke), or what have you, can't bother anyone. Antin has no real ideas as to how to shoot this stuff; he mostly tries to copy Moulin Rouge! and Chicago, but comes closer to recalling Mariah Carey's Glitter. We get quick-cutting while on stage, and hand-held during a "tense" breakup scene. It's meant to be flashy and modern, while using the creakiest writing imaginable to reminisce about an old showbiz style. Real Burlesque performers like Marlene Dietrich, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Josephine Baker could seduce the crowd with one smoldering look, but all the strutting and syllables in the world can hardly do the same thing. Burlesque makes a point of not being about a strip club, but perhaps they should have just given up and brought in the poles.
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