Clichéd, predictable and very enjoyable

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2011)

Critics say that "Burlesque" wastes its cast in a totally clichéd story, and that it wavers uncertainly between "bad" and "so bad that it's good".There is not a better definition for "Burlesque", Hollywood's last big musical.
"Burlesque" doesn't leave any cliché behind. If you mix "Flashdance", "Coyote Ugly", "Cabaret" and certain elements from "The devil wears Prada", you will get "Burlesque". The greatness of "Burlesque" is that all its clichés joined together make a wonderful story. Every single flaw of the story is fixed thanks to some great musical numbers and with very modern songs. The musical numbers are some of the greatest in modern musical productions.
The story centers on Ali(Aguilera), a girl who goes to L.A to become a star. Then, one night, she finds a club called "Burlesque", she goes in and finds a wonderful night club directed by Tess(Cher). Ali falls in love with Jack, a man who works at the club. During the entire movie there is a story about love, jealousy, conflicts, and everything ends with a happy ending.
Aguilera gives an acceptable performance, I mean she can't even reach to the level of Madonna in "Evita" and she looks very artificial at times, but she's not bad considering it is her first leading role. Cher and Kristen Bell don't give the best performance ever, actually it looks like they overact at times, but they are fine. The advantage is that for "Burlesque" they work perfectly. The movie doesn't need extraordinary characters to work, it actually needs average characters to maintain its magic.
But the thing that rises the movie from being an average musical, to an absolutely charming musical, is its great musical numbers. They are so elegant and modern, so well illuminated and danced, that they are inarguably the best of the film. Aguilera and Cher are both great singers and dancers and, even when their acting is not very good in the film, they sing so well that during their songs you forget that you are watching a movie, you forget about the plot, and you are transported into the magical night club.
The movie might not be the greatest thing ever made, and maybe it deserves the Razzie to worst screenplay, but all its flaws joined together make of it a deserver of the nomination to the Golden Globe to Best Picture Comedy/Musical. The songs, specially "You haven't seen the last of me", really deserve an Oscar nomination, at least one of them won a Golden Globe. The film ends with a totally impossible and wonderful musical number, and when it does you feel you've a very long and great musical video rather then a movie.