In a film where much is made about lip-synching, and Nikki is the biggest proponent of it, you’d think they would have gotten someone better for Bell’s number. Nikki goes on to perform while Ali goes back to the bar, picks up a tray, and starts serving. Because it’s platonic, it takes the length of the film to finish its arc in grudging respect. We don’t worry too much, because this is the kind of ire in heterosexual romance movies which always turns to love within twenty minutes. First she flirts with Jack, the hunky, presumably gay bartender, then she meets Cher/Tess the Burlesque owner, endears herself to Sean (Stanley Tucci) the enuch-esque stage matriarch, and incurs the ire of Nikki (Kristin Bell). She proceeds to accomplish four Meet Cutes within five minutes, surely a record. Ali grudgingly gives Alan Cumming (more on him later) $20 to get into the Burlesque lounge. When you have someone who can belt like Aguilera, just let her belt, don’t feel the need to amp up the echoes, reverb, and everything else simply because your production tools have the option.īack to the bright lights. This makes Ali’s later criticism of lip-syncing all the more unintentionally hilarious. Whoever mixed it set everything to ‘as big as possible ’ Ali is singing in a tiny restaurant, but the audio is obviously coming from a gigantic empty concert hall, albeit one with decent acoustics. This song, coming less then three m inutes after we fade into the movie, is the first indication of what’s going seriously wrong. We could possibly have gotten into the movie and even felt for Ali if the song weren’t overproduced to the hilt. The song serves as montage music: we watch her pack all her worldly goods in a suitcase, find a little apartment in LA, put all her money in the second-most-obvious place, and head out to find some bright lights. I laughed at all the wrong places, cried nowhere, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.īurlesque starts out – where else? – in a small town, where Aguilera’s Ali quits her dead-end job, closes the restaurant, and immediately gets up on a chair (the first of many) and starts singing. What better/worse place to start than 2010’s Burlesque? For the first time I watched this stunningly. In 2012 I saw plenty of TV shows, but watched shockingly few films, especially for someone who wants to make a living making films. My one and only new year’s resolution is to watch more movies.
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