The movie adaptation of the hit musical. Stars Christina Aguilera and Cher, with Stanley Tucci, Kristen Bell, Eric Dane, Cam Gigandet and Peter Gallagher.
The story: Ali (Aguilera) moves to LA wanting to be a singer/star and begins working at a burlesque club where everyone lip syncs. The club is run by Tess (Cher), but there's a money problem and she's in danger of losing the club. Eventually Ali makes it into the show and sings and is really good. She also has a relationship with the bartender who likes her but has a girlfriend who is away in New York, so she starts dating a rich man who dates lots of dancers and is trying to buy the club, but of course she really likes the bartender instead and eventually she finds a way to save the club.
Was it good?
No. But it wasn't horrible. It was just blah. The singing and musical stuff was good, and Aguilera is Hawt! However, the story is just totally blah. You cna tell from the summary -- there just isn't much of a story. Cher has the best storyline, wanting to save the club, except she never actually DOES anything. All she does is complain. The closest she comes to doing anything is switching the acts to live singing from lip syncing...but it's not like that seems to have much impact and she never seems to fight to get people in the club. They also say they could fill up the club every night for months and it wouldn't be enough, so the change didn't do anything.
As bad as that is, the storyline for Ali (Aguilera) is worse. There just isn't any story there. She wants to perform and she gets that. She wants to sing and she gets that. She becomes the center of attention..by the middle of the film! So what's the rest of it about? Well, she likes the bartender who has a girlfriend, but he won't go after her, so she starts dating some rich guy that she isn't into. So then we have to wait until the bartender finally breaks up with his girlfriend and goes for Ali, who falls into bed with him. Then they break up because his ex-comes back and then they get together again.
Huh????
So what Ali wants is to be a star and she gets that by midpoint. Then she wants the bartender, but she never really does anything to get him. So for the first half of the film she has a goal which she easily gets, and for the second half she has a goal she never actually pursues. She does eventually solve the money problems that Tess has...although that solution has nothing to do with singing or dancing, so all the musical numbers are really extraneous.
I don't really get it. Most musicals are over-the-top on drama. That's part of the fun of muscials -- the crazy emotional highs and lows they can send the audience to. Here, everything is flat. No highs, no lows...it's like that tried to make a movie that would be just slightly pleasant.
And it was pleasant. Just not actually good. Still, for the singing alone (yes, I am an Aguilera fan) it's worth giving a listen. But story-wise there's nothing to watch.
*** WATCH AS BACKGROUND NOISE ***
WATCH INSTEAD: for a great muscial, try MOULIN ROUGE. Baz Luhrhmann directs a tragic love story with Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. The story is a little uneven, but with tons of brilliant stuff and tons of emotion. Fantastic stuff.
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