Couldn't be more generic if they tried

Rating: 4/10 (17 June 2013)

In a name that cliché style a small-town orphaned Iowa girl Ali (Christina Aguilera) decides to skip her aimless diner existence and hop onto the fast lane of opportunities awaiting in Los Angeles (where else?). Once there she searches for job opportunities matching her dreams and abilities. After becoming obsessively inspired with becoming a girl at the Burlesque Lounge, led by the eternally optimistic and passionate Tess (Cher), a joint way past its glory days and awaiting imminent bank foreclosure, Ali forces herself into a job position as a waitress. Ali with her directness and never-say-die attitude quickly steps up the roster from waitress to dancer to star of the whole show. Meanwhile, until a betterment of fortunes comes around, she bunks together with bartender Jack (Cam Gigandet), an aspiring song-writer engaged to a Broadway actress.
Amongst other familiar caricatures we have the trusted gay sidekick Sean (Stanley Tucci), the spiteful competitor Nikki (Kristen Bell), the business-minded realtor Marcus (Eric Dane), intent on buying out the club and replacing it with high-rise, and the club partner, ex-husband, Vince (Peter Gallagher) hoping to sell the joint at a profit. Together they form an amalgamate of well-worn characters set into the most generic story possible, rife with every lack of surprise bound to happen around the next corner.
Thankfully the lead of Christina Aguilera, who delivers a surprisingly astute performance (albeit not one suggesting a glorious film career), carries the weight of triviality with her charm, pizazz and sexual appeal. Together with a host of scarcely clad beauties on high-heels, in cabarets and a lot of wiggle, the dance sequences are irrefutably engaging and well-done, even if they tend to be a bit repetitive by the fifth on-stage dance. Nonetheless wouldn't mind spending a night out on town in such a sparkling, luscious, if a tad outdated, establishment. On the downside Cher proves again why incessant plastic surgery is the death of a film career, as her face mimicry suffers from abuse and instead of focusing on the actress-singer, I subconsciously found myself attempting to pinpoint and name all operations Cher may have had in a vain attempt to prolong her youthful looks.
The movie also features a small, but absolutely brilliant role as a ticketeer by Alan Cumming, who manages to steal all the thunder away from the much weightier accompanying cast. All in all enjoyable, but so generic (with some dialogue so heavily laden with repetition it hurts), that they couldn't have made it more tired and trusted, if they tried.