July
8
Mamma Mia! Review: Escapist Musical for Dark Times
As a fan of movie musicals, Meryl Streep and the hunky stars playing her trio of ex-lovers, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard, I was eagerly looking forward to Mamma Mia! The Movie.
Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of the music of Abba, and there's the rub. I never saw the global musical theater hit. And Brit theater director Phyllida Lloyd, making her film debut, opted to keep those fans happy with this movie, which falls into the trap of a slavish Broadway to silver-screen adaptation. It doesn't follow the rules of good filmmaking.
Where is it said that all the songs have to play out in real time, even when they stop the movie cold? And because the book for the musical was written around pre-existing songs, their ability to carry genuine emotion is already limited.
No question, the actors up on screen are having the time of their lives. (Only Skarsgard looks like he wishes he were in another movie. But he hardly gets to sing.) While Streep is delightful as the feisty middle-aged single mom about to give away her only daughter in marriage, the star of the show is young Amanda Seyfried, who has great pipes.
Her other co-stars don't fare so well. But does it matter? My pal Jane predicts that this exuberant Greek Island romantic musical will play great to aging boomers looking to get away from the real world. Look at this as an escapist fantasy during dark times, she says.
What Mamma Mia! needs to achieve that goal is to be more review-proof than most chick flicks. Here's a glimpse of reviews to come from Variety.
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gotta agree, great cast, can't beat the greek islands, but abba is one of those groups who when one of their songs came on the radio, the station got changed.
Posted by: mitkid | July 08, 2008 at 01:07 PM
Laughed at them not with them....felt embarressed for all the actors. I blame the director anyone who makes Meryle Streep look foolish, awkward and like she was acting must be a terrible director. Bad choices made throughout -- songs didn't work, dancing looked silly, casting qustionable. and no matter what others say it did not make older people looked sexy, lively or funny. Too camp or not camp enough?? no stars, no thumbs up. Sorry Meryle.
Posted by: ally | July 16, 2008 at 09:36 PM
This movie was the most fun I've had in years in a movie theatre. I find it so interesting that many reviewers feel a need to interject the term "aging baby boomers" refering to the pleasure we get from living out some silly fantasy that the rest of the movie watching audience doesn't relate to - as if some of the infantile movies out today don't appeal to the equally infantile fantasies of teens and tweeners and men who will never really be any kind of super hero......middle aged women aren't the garbage heap of audiences...and I am shocked at the punishment that term is getting over this movie....as if it is some kind of stretch in this day and age to think that middle aged women or aging baby boomers can actually exist on celluloid as happy, sexually energetic and whole people.....so the movie gets critiqued for its lack of production or artistic values - well let's bring on Talladega Nights and the whole repertoire of intellectually stunted men that permeate the movies today.....in the meantime...don't believe anything you hear about this movie...it's fun and the cast is great and it may be one of the freshest movies of its kind you will see in a long time...go enjoy it while you can on the big screen!
Posted by: bijoubijou | August 04, 2008 at 04:14 PM