Mamma Mia!
I don’t
know how I could have passed without commenting this movie which I adore, no
doubts at all, before. You already know
that I became a great fan of Meryl Streep thanks to this movie, but what you
don’t know is that seeing the movie opened my eyes in some way. I realized that
I was a movie musical girl, something
I should have noticed years ago due to the fact that I already, in my early
childhood, loved them thanks to Mary
Poppins but, for God’s sake, who doesn’t like Mary Poppins? Later, movies like Moulin Rouge, Sweeney Todd or The
sound of music confirmed it.
Without
more waiting I start with my critic.
Why I watched it?
Once
upon a time, the 26th December of 2010, there was a girl who was
getting a shower and her mother came to inform her that night they were going
to pass a movie musical, in the TV, called Mamma
Mia! This girl went out of the shower and waited patiently on the sofa till
it was the due hour. She enjoyed the movie, she enjoyed it a lot. All the songs
were known by her and it turned out that it was because her father used to put
some ABBA music when she was little.
Original title: Mamma Mia!
Duration: 105min.
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Screenwriter: Catherine
Johnson based on the Broadway play Mamma
Mia!
Country: Great Britain.
Genre: romantic comedy,
musical.
Year: 2008
Music: Benny Andersson and
Björn Ulvaeus based on the ABBA
songs.
Cast: Meryl Streep, Pierce
Brosnan, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgard, Christine Baranski, Julie
Walters, Dominic Cooper.
Summary: Sophie (Seyfried) is going
to marry and she wants to find her father before her big day comes. There is
only one problem: she doesn’t know who her father is. After reading the diary
of her mother Donna (Streep) she discovers her father was one of her mother’s
old lovers. Although she knows her mother wouldn’t approve it, she invites her
three possible fathers, Sam (Brosnan), Harry (Firth) and Bill (Skarsgard), to
the wedding.
First impression: wow!
Second impression: double wow!
If the story isn’t just enough to convince you it
is a great movie then you must know that the plot is decorated by the marvelous
ABBA songs sung by actors whose singing doesn’t go unnoticed but shine with
intensity thanks to their voices and their performances.
This musical was brought to the theatre and it
had a huge success in all the countries where it was performed.
The movie contains at all of anecdotes such as
the one told by Meryl Streep who went to see the show in New York, after the
September 11 when Ms. Streep’s family had moved to the city, to celebrate the
birthday of her youngest daughter. She took her daughter and friends to see it
in October, and she was marveled by what she saw. Therefore, she wrote a letter
to the cast and the producers of the play to congratulate them for their
magnificent job. Years later it was she the one who marveled the world with the
same musical, this time in the big screen.
Pierce Brosnan’s
father had passed away a week before he took the role. When he went to see the
play he knew which role would be his, Sam
Carmichael, when he hear the names of the “fathers”. Carmichael was the second name of his father and he took this as a
signal to accept the role, and he did it right after hearing “Meryl Streep, Greece and ABBA”. These
are the three main pillars of the movie.
The place where the events take place couldn’t have
been better. Although some of the scenes were filmed in London, in the Pinewood studios where Pierce Brosnan
shone as the agent 007, Greece, being the second localization of the movie, has
a really important role in the movie. A musical has to have a lot of color and
the sunny Greek islands of Skopelos and Skiathos give this, perfectly, and much
more.
The story of the movie follows the relationships between
the characters; thus, the main subject of the film is, without doubt, love.
Love between mother and daughter, love between friends, love between lovers,
love for living. The story starts with love and ends with love. Of course
within the movie there is at all of this strange feeling, a feeling that the
majority of people, if not all, is looking for along their lives owing to the
fact that love is the force which moves the world. If you ask yourself why you
are doing this or that you will see that the main reason of why you, like the
rest of people, do something is because of love. Not just love for a special
person but love for your family, your friends, material things, or even for
yourself. [Ex: I study due to the fact that I love myself and I want to have a
good future, or I make the bed every day because if I don’t make the bed my
mother will be angry with me and I don’t want to see her angry due to the
fact that a) I love her too much, b) I
love me too much to listen to someone reprimanding me.] In this movie we see
how love can lead our future and how it can define everything which is around
us, even ourselves.
Everything starts owing to the fact that Sophie (Seyfried)
wants to have her father with her in her wedding. She is marrying Sky (Cooper)
because she loves him; here we have the love element. Although the problem
comes from the past, love is once more the cause of everything. Sophie’s
mother, Donna (Streep), fell in love with a man who was engaged (this fact was
unknown by her) and who left her after having spent one night with her. After a
heart-broken Donna looked for a man who could reply the hole which Sam
(Brosnan) made in her heart, she discovered she was pregnant not knowing who of
the three men who have share a night with her is the father of her unborn child.
We continue with the plot and we find again love being the leader of the film.
Donna had to go when her mother found she was pregnant to keep her baby with
her (love). Sophie is getting married (love) and invites her possible fathers
because she wants to meet him (love). Sam, Bill and Harry come because they
were madly in love (LOVE!) with Donna and they want to see her again. On the
other hand we have another type of love, between friends. Sophie invites her
friends to her wedding and Donna hers owing to the fact that they want to share
the special day with their dear ones.
About Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan.
This
movie was the origin of the fandom “Peryl Brostreep” and I must say I ship it.
The chemistry between the actors is seen in the moments where they share scenes
and even out of the screen. They make such a good cinema couple creating the illusion
of them being in reality Donna Sheridan and Sam Carmichael. The kiss of the end
is AWWWWW. She strips him, something which was not in the screenplay. These
little details are the ones that make them have that wonderful chemistry or
maybe they are the consequences of that great chemistry.
I post
here a video where you can hear a song sang by them:
Many fans
of the play have complained because they did not think Mr. Brosnan’s voice was the
adequate and I won’t deny that his voice isn’t the greatest, but it is because
he isn’t a singer but an actor. An actor who did a splendid job, taking into a
count that he didn’t know how to sing. His voice is very “masculine and sexy”
according to the declarations of Ms. Streep. The big problem is that the other
actors sing like if they were professionals and when we hear him it sounds worse
than how it is.
The surprise?
The young
lovebirds. Both Amanda and Dominic were a total cinematic revelation. They give
me hopes for a new generation of good actors. Besides, they have marvelous
voices.
The worst?
I’m
afraid that I don’t find something which is not great.
The best?
The songs
and the performances. In addition, the place.
Mark: 9’5. (I would give it a 10, but 10
is a perfect movie and perfection it’s very difficult to acquire and to be recognized.)
Remember that this is my
opinion, so it isn’t necessary that it concurs with yours.
That’s all!
