Christina Aguilera can sing and dance, but she certainly can’t act.

Audiences might have been skeptical of ”Burlesque” because the main character is played by singer Christina Aguilera, and most of the time,  when singers are placed in an actress’ roles, they don’t deliver and are quite frankly horrible at acting.  In this case audiences would be right..

The movie is a cute, fun and exciting musical, and .

The acting was poor, but the plot and music were phenomenal.

Aguilera plays the main character, Ali, who leaves her hometown in Iowa and lands a job as a waitress at Burlesque, a club in Hollywood.

Ali just wants to be successful and pursue her dream of singing. From the minute she sets foot in Burlesque, Ali knows she wants to be onstage with the other dancers.  Aguilera did a satisfactory  job for being a singer in an actor position.  She portrayed the ambitious and young Ali, although it was not a Meryl Streep performance.

At Burlesque, Ali meets Tess (Cher), the owner of the club, who is as tough as nails but acts as a mother to all of the girls who dance at the club. Tess is juggling two mortgages and has creditors and a real estate agent breathing down her neck, trying to buy out the club.

Ali learns all of the dance moves during her job as a waitress. When she auditions in front of Tess, Tess is pleased, although she doesn’t show it.  After some coaxing from her cute and funny assistant Sean (Stanley Tucci), Tess promotes Ali to lead dancer. Sean added comedy to the movie and made us smile every time he appeared on the screen.

There is one rule at Burlesque, though: no live singing.  As Tess tells the dancers, people come to the club to see them dance, not sing. 

Nikki (Kristen Bell) is another Burlesque dancer and was surprisingly good at playing the “mean girl” role. She becomes Ali’s enemy and turns off the music during one of Ali’s dance routines.

 This doesn’t stop Ali, though.  She sings the song herself, allowing the other dancers and her to continue the number. When Ali becomes the club’s biggest attraction, Tess finally sees just how valuable Ali is.

Ali falls in love with Burlesque’s engaged bartender, Jack (Cam Gigandet).  Of course love works in mysterious ways, and conveniently,  Jack’s fiancée is out of town.  Since Ali has no family and no place to stay, Jack agrees to let Ali stay at his place until she can find a place of her own.   

The singing and dancing in Burlesque was nothing less than expected with Aguilera as the starring actress.

We recommend you grab the ten dollars in your wallet and see “Burlesque” because even though the acting was merely acceptable, the singing and plotline were fantastic.