No cliché left unturned

Rating: 5/10 (5 October 2012)

Although "Burlesque" is set in what is basically a high-class strip club, it is a film on the hoary old theme of "A Star is Born" and treats its theme in a very traditional way, with no cliché left unturned. It starts by emphasising its heroine's humble background. Alice "Ali" Rose is an orphan from a working-class background in a small town in Iowa, where she works as a waitress. Like all girls from humble backgrounds in films of this type, Ali harbours longings for fame and fortune, so she gets on the bus to Los Angeles where she hopes to find work in showbiz.
Like all girls in films of this type who long for fame and fortune, Ali finds that they do not (at least at first) come easily. She auditions for a number of showbiz roles, only to be consistently rejected. She eventually finds work in a burlesque club, but only as a waitress, doing the same sort of work as she was doing in Iowa. Eventually, however, her persistence pays off and when one of the dancers becomes pregnant the club owner agrees to take Ali on as her replacement. And then- like all girls in films of this type- Ali gets her big break to become the star of the show, not just a backing dancer.
One might think that the above synopsis contains more than enough clichés for one film, but just about every character is a cliché in his or her own right. We have the heroine's tough, feisty boss (in this case a woman) who turns out to have a heart of gold. We have the heroine's jealous, bitchy rival who turns out to have no heart at all. We have the heroine's kindly best friend (here, in one of the film's few breaches with tradition, a gay man rather than another woman). And then we have the two men in the heroine's life, one poor but caring and sensitive, the other rich but selfish and materialistic. (No prizes for guessing which one turns out to be the heroine's true love).
"Burlesque" reminded me in some ways of "Showgirls", another film about a girl with showbiz ambitions who eventually lands the leading role in the sort of song-and-dance show whose performers wear as few clothes as possible. And yet, although "Showgirls" was almost universally panned by the critics, I actually preferred it- at least dramatically, if not musically- to "Burlesque". At least "Showgirls" had some sort of satirical value, achieved by making its leading character Nomi Malone a thoroughly nasty little slut with the morals of an alley cat. Ali, by contrast, is described by another character as "beautiful inside as well as out", and even though she earns her living by wearing revealing costumes and performing provocative dance routines comes across as just too sweet and wholesome to be true.
This film marked the debut of pop singer Christina Aguilera as an actress. She doesn't reveal too much talent in that direction, although to be fair to her any actress would have had difficulty in making Ali interesting, as she is less a character in her own right than a compendium of clichés drawn from every showbiz movie ever made. Xtina is also no worse than most of the others on display, including Cher (as club boss Tess), who has far more acting experience but whose contribution here won her a "worst supporting actress" Razzie nomination. Cher's main problem with acting these days appears to be her addiction to plastic surgery; her mask-live face, strangely smooth and unlined for a woman of 92 (or whatever age she is), is not the best instrument for expressing emotion. Kristen Bell as the heroine's bitchy, jealous rival Nikki is required to do little except adopt an angry, resentful expression every time Ali does anything. Stanley Tucci's role as the heroine's camp male best friend seemed to be a reprise of his similar role in "The Devil Wears Pravda", although in that film his character's homosexuality was not made explicit as it is here. Tucci appears to be getting typecast in roles like this, so I was surprised to learn that he is actually straight in real life.
"Burlesque" is a musical along the lines of "Cabaret" or "Fame", the sort where the characters only sing or dance in situations where people normally sing or dance in real life, and therefore demands a setting in the world of show-business. The song-and-dance numbers are all very professionally done, and whatever Aguilera's limitations as an actress she has a very fine voice, not only melodious but also powerful and expressive. In her musical numbers she was able to convey her character's emotions much more strongly than she could through her acting. Aguilera performs most of the songs, although Cher (also very expressive) contributes two. In one of them she strips down to a revealing costume to show us just what a fine figure she has for a woman of 117 (or whatever age she is). Oddly enough for an entertainer who is well-known both as a singer and as an actress, this was Cher's first cinematic musical.
The film's saving grace, and the one thing which prevents it from getting a lower mark, is that, musically speaking, it is actually not at all bad. Its great fault, and the thing which prevents it from getting a higher mark, is that, dramatically speaking, it is completely lacking in originality, a badly acted rehash of hackneyed themes from every showbiz film you've ever seen. It is a pity that the energy of the musical sequences could not have been put to use in the service of a better story. 5/10