BURLESQUE

US, 2010, 119 minutes, Colour.
Cher, Christina Aguilera, Eric Dane, Cam Gigandet, Julianne Hough, Alan Cumming, Peter Gallagher, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci.
Directed by Steve Antin.

Burlesque ain’t what it used to be.

Back in the days of Gypsy Rose Lee and before, it was bump and grind ‘dancing’ for an ogling male audience (which led, I suppose, to the so-called Gentlemen’s Clubs of recent times which do not really foster gentlemanly behaviour at all).

Here, we are in Los Angeles in the present day in the kind of film that Madonna might wish she had made twenty years ago (although she tried out lots of the routines in a number of video clips). This is a rags to riches story, the naive young woman who arrives in LA (from the empty plains of Iowa, of course) looking for a job and who falls on her feet (no, that’s not right, she is quite adept on her feet) and lands work as a waitress, then tries an audition and fills in when the lead dancer does not break a leg but is unreliably drunk – and a new show is created around her since she is the greatest thing to hit LA since... And, because she is played by a reliable and talented singer, Christina Aguilera, there is a certain credibility about the whole thing.

There is no stone unturned, no shoe unfitted, no stick unshaken in writer director, Steve Antin’s screenplay. You know what is going to happen but that does not matter all that much. It is watching how it happens that is the important thing. This makes Burlesque something of a guilty pleasure unless you are like a number of those at the press preview who decided that the best they could offer to the film was to laugh at the obvious and melodramatic lines.

We are taken into a different world, not necessarily one that we would normally want to be in. We spend most of the time in the burlesque club with a few excursions to shared apartments, to an LA mansion for a party and to a lawyer’s office. By and large, we spend a lot of time in the darkness, illuminated by spotlights. There is an opening number about burlesque, presided over by Cher, looking more or less the same as she did 23 years ago when she won an Oscar for Moonstruck – she looks well preserved (and we might be wondering how). The song and choreography are in the Bob Fosse and Cabaret style (with Alan Cumming, who did play the MC on Broadway, doing a similar routine).

Christina Aguilera clearly believes in Burlesque as a star vehicle for her movie career and does her best, though her best is belting out the songs, a number of which she wrote.

There are some funny and ironic moments, many of which come from Stanley Tucci a la Devil Wore Prada, as the master of costumes in the club. Cam Gigandet is the romantic lead, a would-be song-writer who works in the bar at the club. Eric Dane is the handsome, ultra-capitalist villain who wants to buy the club and pull it down for re-development. James Brolin turns up as a lawyer and Peter Gallagher exudes anxiety as Cher’s ex-husband and part-owner of the club with only days before they lose ownership.

This is one of those excessive films which you surrender to or perch on a great height all the better to look down on it!

1. Burlesque as entertainment, theatre? The girls, the routines? The audience? Dance, bump and grind? The clientele?

2. Lowbrow entertainment, guilty pleasure?

3. The conventions of the show business story, the film’s use of all these conventions, clichés, audience expectations? The dialogue in this vein? The touch of the obvious, the banal, the witty?

4. The Iowa opening, the barren landscapes, the dilapidated diner, Ali and her going to Los Angeles, the look of Los Angeles, buildings, apartments, streets, clubs? A particular Los Angeles?

5. Ali and her life, no family, her dead mother, work at the diner, the boss and his meanness, the co-worker and her son, the argument with the boss, taking the money, giving it to the woman, leaving, her hopes? Her packing, song and dance, travel, all intercut? The quest in Los Angeles? Looking for jobs, not getting them?

6. The burlesque theatre, the twenty dollars, the cashier? The performances, Ali’s experience in knowing this was her life? Her rapt attention? Talking with Tess, the bad timing? Sean and his advice? Jack and his help? Her becoming a waitress, reactions of all, the girls, Tess?

7. The musical score, Welcome to Burlesque, the Bob Fosse choreography, the echoes of Cabaret, the girls, Cher and her singing?

8. The range of songs, the lyrics, Christina Aguilera and her contribution?

9. Jack and Ali, her thinking he was gay, his sharing the apartment, his fiancée in New York? Friendship, the agreements about the apartment, the developing friendship, the rooms? Jack and his music? Ali going out in the rain, Jack calling her back? The phone calls to Natalie? Her arrival?

10. Tess, her life, owning the club, the marriage to Vincent, the divorce, her antagonism towards Marcus, refusal of his offer, her becoming desperate?

11. Marcus, smooth style, his deals, his relationship with Nikki, the girls, his fascination with Ali, taking her for the drive, the party, to meals? The issue of air space above buildings? His being defeated by Ali and her telling Tess about the air space?

12. Nikki, founding the club, drinking, being fired, her anger, spite towards Tess, about Vincent, her antagonism towards Ali, taking the microphone out?

13. Ali, her chance, the audition, singing, commanding the audience, the show written around her, the range of songs and routines? Her success?

14. Jack and his jealousy of Marcus, the fight, Ali going back to the apartment, the sexual encounter – with the comic touches? Natalie’s arrival? Jack’s apology?

15. Sean, friendship with Tess, support, work, advice, helping Jack, helping Ali? The encounter with Mark?

16. Vincent, his aims, his relationship with Tess, Tess not getting the loans? Vincent wanting to sell the club? Ali and her visit to Marcus’s house, the information given to the lawyer, Tess able to buy out Vincent?

17. Natalie, forgiveness, her return to the group?

18. The future, the final song, the nature of burlesque?

19. An experience inside a different world?