Mamma Mia!
Everyone who is anyone in Vilnius musical life was in the 'Mamma Mia! - the Movie' last night. Well, at least David Geringas and I (separately...).
I must admit that when the film opened and a perfect set of American teeth came out with an observation that was pure 12-year-old, I seriously considered leaving. But I like Abba songs.
What followed, was pure summer holiday escapism for all the family. A seriously contrived, happy little story set on a beautiful island, interspersed with lots of Abba songs, and then some stuck on at the end which they obviously couldn't fit into the film.
There was some great acting - Julie Walters at her best - singing, dancing, acting, and then, and then? Let's move on to the singing. Here we had actors singing the Abba songs, hardly ever in a group of 4 like the originals. At least they did not mime the original songs, but then again, some people clearly cannot sing - like Colin Firth - it was cringe-making. And the voices did not always fit the songs, and I wonder if some of the words were changed. And the accompaniments, were they original or arranged? They did not seem to quite fit. This could lead to a paper on 'original' performances in music - sadly, of Bach there are no recordings.....
So, it's a happy, good mood, funny little film with nice music, one you could take even the young children to (as long as you can explain the concept of a person having three fathers), but if I wanted to see a film with Abba music, I would always go for 'Muriel's Wedding' which has the original songs, and considerably more bite than 'Mamma Mia!'.
I must admit that when the film opened and a perfect set of American teeth came out with an observation that was pure 12-year-old, I seriously considered leaving. But I like Abba songs.
What followed, was pure summer holiday escapism for all the family. A seriously contrived, happy little story set on a beautiful island, interspersed with lots of Abba songs, and then some stuck on at the end which they obviously couldn't fit into the film.
There was some great acting - Julie Walters at her best - singing, dancing, acting, and then, and then? Let's move on to the singing. Here we had actors singing the Abba songs, hardly ever in a group of 4 like the originals. At least they did not mime the original songs, but then again, some people clearly cannot sing - like Colin Firth - it was cringe-making. And the voices did not always fit the songs, and I wonder if some of the words were changed. And the accompaniments, were they original or arranged? They did not seem to quite fit. This could lead to a paper on 'original' performances in music - sadly, of Bach there are no recordings.....
So, it's a happy, good mood, funny little film with nice music, one you could take even the young children to (as long as you can explain the concept of a person having three fathers), but if I wanted to see a film with Abba music, I would always go for 'Muriel's Wedding' which has the original songs, and considerably more bite than 'Mamma Mia!'.
1 comments:
I was coerced into seeing Mamma Mia (the play), which ended up being great... as for the movie version, sounds fun, though it's awkward to think of ol' Pierce trying to sing, yeeesh
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