"The Last Showgirl"

  ☆☆☆ 

Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis deliver heartbreaking, grounded performances in The Last Showgirl, a movie that otherwise feels aimless, as if as much in desperate need of purpose as its titular character.

Shelly is 57, and since she was in her 20s she's been starring in "Le Razzle Dazzle," an old-style Las Vegas revue, the kind with topless showgirls tastefully showing off their large breasts while tottering in high heels and balancing enormous feather hats—the kind of R-rated ogling that doesn't offend Republicans. Occasionally, men mistake Shelly and her co-stars for prostitutes, but it doesn't happen often, and it's something they've gotten used to. They've gotten used to a lot—especially the idea that, even in the age of Cirque du Soleil, $3,000-a-seat musical residencies and a sports-oriented reinvention of Las Vegas, "Le Razzle Dazzle" will continue.

Until the day it doesn't. The show is going to close. What will become of Shelly? That's both the setup and, unfortunately, the plot of this sometimes meandering and often deeply affecting look at the way it becomes harder with age to adapt to the ways the world changes. But the movie has little sense of what to do with an excellent setup.

There are some secondary characters that float around the edges of the screen, but only one, the cocktail waitress Annette played by spray-tanned Jamie Lee Curtis, stands out. The Last Showgirl never allows Shelly to question her abilities, to explore the reality of her situation, or even enough agency to make definite decisions about her future.

Mostly, The Last Showgirl is an exercise in mood and restraint. In keeping with its theme, it's lovely to look at, quiet and melancholy, and Pamela Anderson does more than prove she has transcended her origins as a sexpot. The role is tailor made for her, an opportunity to remind the world that while she was traipsing about topless and showing off her ample assets, she was learning, growing, changing—in short, that she's a real person, interesting and multi-faceted, and with genuine talent.

But just as Shelly needs a better vehicle than "Le Razzle Dazzle," Anderson needs a better vehicle than The Last Showgirl, which mistakes quiet for thought, and restraint for introspection.

Viewed January 18, 2025 — Screener