My Mamma Mia! Movie Review — Page 2

I loved this movie! I was a little worried about how it would look on screen since the stage show is so campy but it actually worked. And I'm going to have to completely agree...Brosnan's singing was the worst thing in the entire movie. I actually looked at my friend and said, "Are they serious?". It was utterly terrible.

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"Brosnan especially looks physically pained choking out the lyrics, as if he's being subjected to a prostate exam just outside of the camera's eye."

OUCH!

I disagree that comedy isn't Streep's forte. She was hilarious in her understated performance as Miranda Pressley in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (a different kind of comedy, of course), but she was equally funny in DEATH BECOMES HER and SHE-DEVIL. She also had some incredibly funny moments in POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE.

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I guess I missed the memo but I adore Pierce's singing in the film. His rawness added to the whole feel of the film. "S.O.S." is actually my favorite ABBA song and its version on the Madrid Cast Recording is my favorite of the cast recordings (titled "No Lo Ves"), so if anything... I was worried about everyone ripping Pierce's singing apart. After seeing the scene, I simply adored it. ADORED IT.

So much so that its always the first track I listen to on the film soundtrack and others I know who have seen the film also love his raw vocals in the song. They don't read these Broadway Message Boards (or any of the other message boards on MAMMA MIA!), so they were clueless to audience's reactions to his singing.

Regardless... "S.O.S." is my favorite number in the film.

My partner made a point of mentioning "She Devil" as an example of when he absolutely hated her....all I remember of it was that it was supposed to make Roseanne a movie star and Streep got most of the attention. Also, the BBC miniseries with Julie Wallace was SOOOOOO much better.

I love interviews with Meryl...she is very funny and self-deprecating, but this is perhaps the first movie where I thought she was straining to fit the mood of the movie. I applaud her trying to go all loosey-goosey but too much of the comedic end of her performance felt forced...at least to me,

Oh I'm sure Lifetime and Bravo are having a bitchy cat fight over the rights as we speak.

Streep gave an incredibly convincing performance in SHE-DEVIL. I just saw it recently, but she looks like she is having so much fun playing this diva that you can't help but love her. I do think the movie belongs to her, although Ed Begley Jr. is quite funny too.
Bobby is 100% right, she is actually hilarious off-screen. Her speeches tend to be a riot... her Emmy speech after winning for ANGELS IN AMERICA is one of my all-time favorite speeches, and of course she always manages to make me laugh in all her interviews, especially when she is making fun of herself.
I don't think this is her best performance by any means, but to say she is not a great comedienne would be ignoring a significant chunk of her long career.

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I can't wait for her Sister A in Doubt. She'll infuse it with the right amounts of comedy and drama.

Jewishboy, I find myself liking Brosnan more the more I think about his performance. I still think he wasn't as appealing as the rest of the men, Firth and Sagarski (sp?) were so funny, but Brosnan's "S.O.S" was campy enough and touching enough to evoke the right feelings. I thought his scenes with Seyfried were better than his scenes with Streep, but his moment in the church with Streep is a lot of fun and he does have great chemistry with her as well as he does with the two other possible dads. I don't think they should have added a song for him to sing though...
I believe the women and Firth give my favorite performances though. Thinking about "Does Your Mother Know?" and "Chiquitita" still cracks me up, and Meryl's "The Winner Takes It All" has been playing non-stop on my iPod today, the vocals are great but seeing her actually inject the emotions into it was priceless.

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