Review – Striptease

Poor Annie Lennox. What did she ever do to deserve having her music used on the soundtrack for a hunk of junk like this? Actually, the premise itself isn’t the end of the world. It’s the usual mish-mash of clichés surrounding a stripper with a heart of gold who’s trying to use her relationship with a politician to wrest her daughter from her abusive ex. Indeed, I’ve heard that the source novel isn’t all that bad. But the movie version sure is. For openers, it can’t seem to decide whether it’s a comedy or a drama (a problem due at least in part to problems in pre-screenings). Thus it ends up playing neither role effectively. And speaking of people who don’t play their roles especially well: the entire cast (even Burt Reynolds, who mails in his performance as the crooked politician) does a workmanlike job with their parts. Everyone, that is, except for the ever-effervescent Demi Moore, who sadly is charged with the task of playing the lead. I’m no stripping connoisseur, but it seemed to me as if her peeling was no better than her acting. And that’s bad. See if desperate