A Friend Always Is There To Help A Friend

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2011)

Christina Aguilera gets help from Cher & a good solid supporting cast of friends to pull off a decent film. There aren't many musical films and there are 2 things this one suffers from. The first is the plot was done in 1930's musicals.
Cher is the nearly bankrupt Burlesque club owner fighting to hold on to her club. She has an offer to sell her club & get out but refuses to do it. Christina is the wide eyed Iowa farm girl who runs away from a waitress job to wait tables and move on up at Cher's club. There is a romance which is played the same as romances were played in classic musicals other than the the new found male nudity shots that are becoming more commonplace in films now.
The second thing that suffers here is the music, while it is good, there are no great songs. We don't have a Jennifer Hudson knockout song like Dream Girls had a few years ago. The lack of a knock out number makes this an OK movie but keeps it from being a great film.
To their credit, the costumes and staging of the numbers is top notch. Cher is carefully used by the camera to try & hide her age by using short sequences of her on camera and using darkness at times to hide her figure which at age 65 or so is not what it once was.
Cher does do two numbers and her voice still hits the notes well. Aguilera sounds great too. We have a good looking musical which kind of doesn't quite cook. At least Cher can start getting her Social Security though I doubt that will bail her out at the bank if she financed this one.