Reviewed by Ann Marie
Bright lights, dancing and lip syncing the concept behind the post nightclub Burlesque, well until talented small town girl Ali (Christina Aguleria
) shows up.The movie starts off in a small town. Ali is a waitress at the local bar, where the manger has had some "cash flow problems" when it comes to paying his employees. Realizing that her dream is not to serve people food the rest of her life, she robs the register for the amount which she is owed and decides to high tail it to the big city of Los Angeles. Scouring the city for employment as a singer, she comes upon Burlesque, a night club full of girls in tiny outfits, lip syncing to various old songs and entertaining the audience. Ali realizes this is her chance to become something great and tries to get a job. Ali is told to talk to Tess (Cher
) about auditions, but she is just laughed at. Ali takes things into her own hands and begins waiting tables as a way to get started on the ground floor. From here Ali soon becomes noticed by both Tess and Sean (Stanley Tucci, Julie and Julia), and they can see the fight in her.This movie had an all star cast, who all brought their A game on screen. Tucci, Cher and Augliera were excellent bringing charisma, power and really embodied their characters. Tucci's character, frequently used as comic relief, had very similar characteristics to Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada. Joining these three on screen in supporting roles was Julianne Hough (Dancing with the Stars), Cam Gigandet (Easy A), Eric Dane (Valentines Day), Peter Gallagher and Kristen Bell (Couples Retreat).
Just like many musical, Broadway inspired films there the singing and dancing was occasionally interrupted by storyline. However, Burlesque had some pacing problems balancing the two. It started off strong with solid flow, but then dipped a little in the middle, only to gather some momentum in the final reel. It is unfortunate that by the time the movie picks back up, the film has floundered without any real direction for a good half an hour. Not only did some storylines go on for too long, some characters and plot lines were almost completely extraneous. Alan Cumming's Alexis in particular is relegated to being a "Where's Waldo," appearing randomly throughout the film for single lines of dialog.
Now as far as the movie's technical aspects, there was some great use of color. For instance, when the movie starts the small town was very dim in color, with the use of more pastel type colors and softened light. Then when the movie moves to Los Angeles, there is still a very dim color use outside of Burlesque. However, once the dance troupe hits the stage, all of their dance numbers in the film use bright colors and lighting. This is an interesting technique to help the audience differentiate between the fantasy of the stage and the more mundane realities of everyday life.
As far as editing for the film, there wasn't really anything too special about it. However, the movie didn't have any jump cuts or awkward moments that took away from the flow of the storyline. The film was directed by Steven Antin in his feature film directorial debut and was written by Antin himself in collaboration with Diablo Cody (Jennifer's Body).
As of this writing, Burlesque is selling for around $15 for the basic DVD
, but if you are looking for the two disc combo
that's going for $19. © 2011 beyond the films
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