Going from one side of the musical movie spectrum to the other, today my daughter and I watched Mamma Mia!: The Movie. Based on the Broadway Musical of the same name, sans "The Movie" of course, this feature has the classic tunes of disco sensation ABBA to fuel the campy flame of this feature. A simple pebble of a plot starts an avalanche of trouble when the main character Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) sends out letters to three men that might be her father. Why she didn't ask them to get DNA testing done is beyond me, but for someone that's lived on a Greek island most her life, the option might not now have occurred to her. Of course, doing musical numbers at a medical lab would not have the same effect as a beach, boat, or old hotel.
With the arrival of the three men, Donna (Meryl Streep) and her daughter Sophie start a game of cat and mouse to keep their knowledge of the three potential fathers from each other, thinking that if one tells the other, it would be a great emotional blow to the other. It's rather funny to watch, yet after some time you start to wonder just how long they can keep this up.
Yet, that mother-daughter conflict is not the most painful part of the production. No, that would be reserved for Pierce Brosnan. His roles as Remmington Steele and James Bond established his place in Hollywood as a model of masculinity, but the was a reason he earned a Razzie nomination for his role as Sam. That reason was his singing. When he's singing with other people, he doesn't sound so bad, possibly because you can tune him out over the tone of the people that sound good. He can hit the notes, but they sound strained, almost like someone singing ABBA at a karaoke bar.
Another element that strikes at my adoration of this movie is the ending. Who's the dad? Who cares? You know what else? I don't need to get married? Let's just travel around the world and forget about legal unions! But not all is lost, for they still have a wedding, only it's Donna and Sam! It's only been 20 years since they last saw each other, but it's all well and good!
Some may ask, if I suffered through that before, why did I watch it again? Simply being, it's a fun show, and my daughter loves to dance to the music. The song that impacted me the most, and it's a stretch to say that ABBA leaves an impact on you, was "Slipping Through My Fingers."
I had to hug my daughter as I watched this song, and it was one of the songs I couldn't sing along to, especially with the phrase, "Try to capture every moment." I know my daughter is growing up, and knowing me, I'm going to blink and she'll be going to school, then graduating, then moving away from home. Will I record everything? Probably not.
That does not mean I should give up trying, nor will I.
Musical week is winding down to a close, but I'm going to try to squeeze in a few good ones. Tomorrow, I'm thinking "Annie Get Your Gun" since it has comedy, horses, and lots of guns. I did reserve "Hello Dolly!" from EPL, and if that comes in tomorrow, we might watch that one instead.
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