Mamma Mia!
Today I’m taking a bit of a break from our regularly scheduled posts for something a bit different and not at all that serious – a little gush over Mamma Mia!
I’ve never really been one for musicals. I saw the Lion King once in London as a young teen growing up but that’s the expanse of my musical knowledge. So despite the fact I like a bit of ABBA it should come as no surprise that I’ve not gone out of my way to watch Mamma Mia! in either its film or on stage forms. Until recently that is. We had to stay the night at my partner’s dad’s house to look after his chickens and dogs and since he lives in an internetless wasteland we had to turn to DVDs to keep ourselves amused. Thea wanted to watch Mamma Mia so given little-to-no choice I settled in for it.
What have I been missing? It’s delightful! It’s somewhat embarrassing how much I’m into it! It’s great! The point I am at in my life and my circumstances have obviously factored into my experience but gosh darn it the film, and more importantly the music, makes me feel good. I’ve only watched the film once but I’ve had the soundtrack on repeat pretty much continuously since. MORE.
I have a few opinions on the soundtrack but they’re like…. not important ones. I would say they underused Amanda Seyfried because she can certainly belt out a track; however, I know the musical would have obviously dictated this beforehand! Meryl Streep is absolutely fantastic too. I’ve honestly not seen or heard her in that much but after seeing this and the recent series of Only Murders in the Building I am sold on her. I think it’s also important to note that the older guys in the film’s singing ranges from sort of ok to pretty awful but I don’t know, I allow it in an “awww they’re trying” sort of way. Thea can’t take the beginning of SOS with Pierce Brosnan singing seriously and that feeling has transferred onto me. I would say that my favourite tracks are Lay All Your Love On Me, The Winner Takes It All and probably Mamma Mia itself.
And then this week, after it being mentioned repeatedly by my friend lately, we watched the sequel and again, it should come as no surprise, I rated it. At first I was shocked to see that Donna had been killed off so there’d be less from Meryl (money apparently) but I was surprised by Lily James and how well she can carry herself. What I was not prepared for was the film being totally and absolutely emotionally devastating. I thought seeing Donna’s early life was a nice novelty at first but then when they brought back Donna at the end for a few songs it was heartbreaking due to your understanding of the character being more advanced.
The music in the second one is great but I feel like it has different, sometimes less over the top vibes and it’s definitely noticeable in songs that are in both films but I one hundred percent appreciate the different takes on those and the songs as a whole. When I Kissed The Teacher, Andante, Andante and The Name Of The Game are all on a loop for me (which I guess is a testament to Lily James too) and I am constantly getting them stuck in my head. Having Cher appear near the end was to my mind a weird move but then she goes for it in Fernando and Super Trouper and it all makes sense. Shoutout to the guys in the film too, they all carry their weight a lot better even the older guys reprising their roles.
Anyway I’m just waffling out here because I wanted to get my feelings down. αντιο σας!