Burlesque

Tonally, this film is all over the map.  Ali (Christina Aguilera) is a small town girl from Iowa headed for the dreams offered by Hollywood.  After countless of dance and singing auditions, she happens by a burlesque club, and as the script would have it, Ali shoehorns her way into the club, first as a cocktail waitress, and later she finds her way into the show segments.  Tess (Cher) runs the club, but business isn't great, and her loans are coming due.  Marcus (Eric Dane) is a businessman looking to buy the club, but Tess has always rebuked his offers, but can she still do so with the banks waiting in the wings to foreclose?  Jack (Cam Gigandet) is the bartender with the heart of gold working at the club, and he and Ali become bosom buddies.  Sean (Stanley Tucci) is Tess's right hand man, that stalwart second banana who cheers on Tess when the chips are down, but at least he's somewhat relatable in not glossing over the truth when need be.  The rest of the cast is pretty much wasted (talent-wise), i.e. Julianne Hough, Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell.

The story is pretty basic, and the acting is average, Aguilera isn't going to surprise anyone with her acting (which isn't bad, just not relevatory), but her singing is spot-on along with the dance choreography, and it's the main reason people would want to see the film.  Some of Ali's numbers gave me goosebumps from simply the vocals, and the dance numbers are fun, light, with a hint of naughty.  Every now and then, a solo is dropped into the film's running time, perhaps it was written into the actor's contracts that they get a solo here and there.

But even with some solid song-and-dance numbers, the film's overall plotline is treated rather perfunctory, just to get to the song-and-dance segments, it comes up short as a compelling film to watch when there isn't singing and dancing on the screen.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.