MovieChat Forums > Mamma Mia! (2008) Discussion > Good Lord. Is It A Sin To Enjoy A Movie...

Good Lord. Is It A Sin To Enjoy A Movie Just For Fun?

posted 8 years ago by scottsteaux63-735-780576
9 replies | jump to latest

First let me say this: As an ABBA fan from the days when they were an unknown quartet out of Sweden, I was quite prepared to dislike this movie.

Well I got a big surprise. Not only did I NOT dislike it, I found it utterly charming and the cast did justice to the musical numbers extraordinarily well.

Of course you can't please everybody. Someone else here mentioned that "Chiquitita" didn't make the cut, which I was kind of bummed about too, but ABBA's discography is so large that it would have been impossible to get all of their songs in unless the director had chopped them into segments à la "Moulin Rouge" and we all know how THAT turned out: half the audience thought it was brilliant and the other half considered it an abomination. This approach, on the whole, was better.

And the vocals work. Meryl Streep even manages to sound a LOT like Agnetha Faltskog in the number "Slipping Through My Fingers," a melancholy ballad about a mother watching her daughter mature into a woman and wondering where the years went.

At the end of the day, the one mistake I see a lot of posters on this thread making is TAKING THIS MOVIE MUCH TOO SERIOUSLY. Just by watching it I could tell that the original show was a musical comedy in the best tradition of that genre; the movie made me sorry I had not seen it on stage.

In short, this movie is jolly good fun. It was not made to please everybody (I have a suspicion they were looking to rope in the ABBA fans and God knows there are plenty of us out there), but what movie is?

Taking this movie too seriously is a huge mistake. Neither is it high art. It's a slice of pop culture from the Seventies which as an art form is just as valid as any other.

Oh God. There's nothing more inconvenient than an old queen with a head cold!

[–] muchmeow 8 years ago

What do you mean by Chiquitita didn't make the cut? It's sung by Donna, Rosie, and Tanya in the bathroom after Donna finds out Sofie's possible dads are there.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

Yes, it is fun, but you can still find something fun and yet be irritated by certain things in it - in my case the fact that most of the main actors are too old for the parts they are playing, and the fact that some of the singing is painfully inadequate.

Abba is a group from the 70s, this musical is not.

[–] theknightwolfofaz 8 years ago

This is not a great movie. Hell, it's not even a good movie. But, like a fungus, it just seems to grow on you. For some reason I am unable to fully understand or explain, I quite liked it. Yes, it's corny. Yes, its goofy. Yes, the cast are not going to be remembered for their singing talents. But somehow, the whole thing just sort of gels into an enjoyable, if not quite entertaining, way to spend an evening. It's like drinking warm water. It's not good, but it is refreshing.

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No animals were harmed in the posting of this message, but a number of electrons were annoyed.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] kirx 7 years ago

I had no problem with the plot of the movie as it is simply an adaptation of the stage play, but I have to completely disagree with you about the cast. The singing was HORRENDOUS. It's like they were trying to mock the music of ABBA instead of celebrate it.

[–] louiseculmer 7 years ago

i had not thought of it like that before, but i think that is a very good point.

[–] marktayloruk (2386) 3 years ago

I really enjoyed it. One of those movies that makes one feel that life might be worth living. We need more of them and less doom and gloom.I believe that the lovely Amanda should have made a lot more musicals.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

I agree with you, it's a fun movie, full of sun and music and people having good times! It's pretty and cheerful, what they used to call "frothy", and quite delightful. And the actors are good enough to get me to forgive their singing, they're all so likable that you don't call them on it any more than you call out a friend for singing shitty karaoke.

If this movie is criticized on this forum, it's because some people here are against fun. Seriously! There are posters here who have zero sense of humor or fun, the sort of people who will post objections to laugh lines being included in movies they like, and who don't see why objecting to a humor isn't more popular.

[–] liscarkat (16692) 2 years ago

I tried. I really tried, mainly for my wife. But I had to bail out with half an hour to go. Meryl Streep is repellant. I was having to close my eyes when she was on screen. Finally, I couldn't take it or her any more.