Sunday, July 13, 2008

Mamma Mia!

I watched Mamma Mia! on Friday night with Pia and Jill. And man, it was such a fun and feel-good movie! Which I guess you can expect when you put together Abba music, a Broadway musical, and a great cast top-billed by Meryl Streep.

The movie is based on the musical of the same title. When I was in New York for a weekend back in 2004, I had the option of watching the musical - the receptionist of my hotel was highly recommending it to me - but I ended up watching "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Producers" because Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane reprised their roles during the time I was there.

So I never really got to see the musical and I don't know how the movie stacks up against it. But I do know Abba and their music, and the musical was based on the music of Abba (hence the title). I have to say that for the most part I was impressed. The cast - which included Colin Firth, Stellen Skarsgard (it's great that there was a Swede in the cast), Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski - was really good. Amanda Seyfried, who co-starred with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls, played Sophie in the film and was surprisingly good. I initially didn't recognize her and I thought that she was a newbie who came out of nowhere to take the role.

Of course, the show, as expected, belonged to the marvelous Meryl Streep who played Donna, the lead character. From her acting to her singing to her larger-than-life screen presence, she was such a joy to watch. Especially remarkable was her delivery of the Abba classic "The Winner Takes It All" which was delivered with excellent vocal strength and texture and with immense passion that we have grown to expect from this legendary thespian.

The only downside for me was Pierce Brosnan's singing, which to me didn't sound very good at all. But I guess I have to give him an 'A' for effort.

All in all a great, fun-filled movie. Definitely worth watching. In fact, I think I will be watching it again since my mom wants to see it too, and I will use that as an excuse to see it again. :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Saw the movie yesterday with Mabel (Ferg opted to watch Hancock with Aidan, he is not into Abba music, hehe) and I enjoyed watching it as well...although I agree with you completely on Pierce Brosnan.... =)

Anonymous said...

if it's this good, it'll be better watching it on the big screen rather than downloading it via torrent.