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Ali (Christine Aguilera) is a small-town girl whose pipes and curves revive a dying nightclub in “Burlesque.” |
Writer/director Steve Antin wants desperately to be Bob Fosse in his brassy, sassy musical “Burlesque,” but the laughably cliché dialogue and shallow characters sink any chance that audiences will mistake his film for Fosse’s Oscar-winning “Cabaret.”
We never know much about pop singer Christina Aguilera’s main character Ali, except that she has no friends, no family, no solid acting ability and no reason to stick around Iowa.
So, she heads to L.A. to find her destiny at a Sunset Boulevard nightclub called Burlesque, run by crusty showbiz veteran Tess (legendary singer and gay cult icon Cher).
The place is packed every night with drinking, enthusiastic clients.
Yet, Tess must be a terrible manager because she’s so far behind on the mortgage, the bank prepares to foreclose on the club.
(Gee, did Tess ever think of pink-slipping some of her kajillion employees or cutting back on those lavish sets?)
We already know that Ali can belt out a song like Christina Aguilera, because she does it at the film’s opening.
So it’s no surprise that when a jealous dancer shuts off Ali’s mic during a number, she carries on by blasting the club’s roof off with her natural, unplugged voice (in echo-chamber mode, too).
Tess sees potential in Ali as a headliner. (Read more…)