Mamma Mia!
Is it a spoiler to say that Pierce Brosnan really can't sing? Not that I really cared--everybody else was amazing, and that was the most fun I've had at a movie in a really long time.
I haven't seen the musical, so I don't know how faithful/unfaithful this was to it, but it certainly stood on its own. Amanda Seyfried was absolutely radiant--and sure, the plot was contrived, but when is that not true of a musical? And damn, Meryl Streep can SING--who knew? I did know Christine Baranski could sing, and watching her and Streep and Julie Waters just letting loose was just amazing--especially in a theater packed full of women of a certain age. (I should mention, by the way, that there was no line for Batman when I went to see this today, but Mamma Mia sold out 45 minutes before the show. Good thing the bus schedule made me get there almost an hour early! Of course, to be fair, they were showing Batman something like 10 times today and only had 4 shows of Mamma Mia).
And any movie that had Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth *and* Stellan Skarsgaard as eye candy can only be enjoyable, right? What was remarkable to me, though, was how well everybody sang--everyone seemed to be doing their own voice work, and Colin Firth has a very nice voice. Even Pierce Brosnan was only actually horrible in one of his numbers--he was quite passable in the others, and even in his badness he really still kind of sold it.
I am definitely buying this when it comes out on DVD--it's beautifully shot (like a tourism ad for Greece) and just so joyful and fun, and clearly all the actors are totally having a ball doing it.
I haven't seen the musical, so I don't know how faithful/unfaithful this was to it, but it certainly stood on its own. Amanda Seyfried was absolutely radiant--and sure, the plot was contrived, but when is that not true of a musical? And damn, Meryl Streep can SING--who knew? I did know Christine Baranski could sing, and watching her and Streep and Julie Waters just letting loose was just amazing--especially in a theater packed full of women of a certain age. (I should mention, by the way, that there was no line for Batman when I went to see this today, but Mamma Mia sold out 45 minutes before the show. Good thing the bus schedule made me get there almost an hour early! Of course, to be fair, they were showing Batman something like 10 times today and only had 4 shows of Mamma Mia).
And any movie that had Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth *and* Stellan Skarsgaard as eye candy can only be enjoyable, right? What was remarkable to me, though, was how well everybody sang--everyone seemed to be doing their own voice work, and Colin Firth has a very nice voice. Even Pierce Brosnan was only actually horrible in one of his numbers--he was quite passable in the others, and even in his badness he really still kind of sold it.
I am definitely buying this when it comes out on DVD--it's beautifully shot (like a tourism ad for Greece) and just so joyful and fun, and clearly all the actors are totally having a ball doing it.