ABBA-solutely Fabulous!

I realize what a lame title I've given to this post. It's cheesy and makes you want to take a shower. Of course, if you scroll down through my other post titles, you won't find any great phrasing there, either. At least I'm trying.

Yesterday, Richard and I met up with my sister and her husband. We went to go see Mamma Mia!



Thoughts will follow:

• I guess we should consider ourselves lucky to have found the movie still playing. Often, we stall so long that we miss the theater run and have to watch it on DVD. Not this time, we got into a 3:30 matinée and spent a lot less money.
• I need to stop trying to compare the movie to the stage musical. They just need to change things to make the move work, but it always bugs me when songs are changed or the plot is rearranged. I have the stage version in my head, and I get disoriented when a song doesn't come when it's supposed to.
  
• I think that Amanda Seyfried is beautiful and sings so beautifully. In fact, of the whole cast, her voice was the most beautiful. It was clean and had just a touch of soul in it. I liked her in Mean Girls, and I had no idea that she could sing so well.
• Pierce Brosnan: He had the look for the part, but that was about it. He was good when he was standing there, looking brooding and sexy, but the second he opened his mouth, there was a problem. First, he was trying to do a New York accent. That's right, they got a British guy to play a New Yorker in a British play set in a Greek isle. Didn't need that.
• I need a whole second bullet devoted to Pierce Brosnan's lack of singing ability. He looked so pained when he was singing...it was almost constipation. I felt so bad for him. When he sang "S.O.S", I would grimace every time he sang. Then my sister started laughing, and her husband would elbow her to stop her from laughing. It was painful.
• Do you know what was worse? They gave Pierce an extra solo to sing at the end. That's right, a song that didn't appear in the stage musical was given to the guy who had the least ability to sing. What was that all about?
• Meryl Streep was fine. They really used her real voice, which sometimes worked really well and sometimes didn't work so well. But it added a shade of reality to a musical. It wasn't glossed over, but she can pull it off. Case in point:I loved the group numbers (is that any surprise?). The bachelorette party was phenominal! The spinning and dancing was so much fun to watch.
• Colin Firth is amazing. He's played parts like this before (the uptight guy who is trying to let his hair down), but he is so good at it. He also has a really good rapport acting with young women without looking lecherous. In my opinion, it's easy for guys to get into "creepy old man" mode.

There, you have the complete Lay Terms review of Mamma Mia! Go for the enjoyment of the situation. Don't take it (or yourself) too seriously. Have a dance party with your children. Laugh at Pierce trying to belt those solos out. Have a good time. Or, if you want the original, you go here: