Hmmm ... very interesting :). I actually went to see Mamma Mia last night with a friend of mine who wanted to see a fluffy, happy movie and I have to say it came through in spades with that - the plot was ridiculous, but the cast did marvelously with what they had. I suppose I could classify as what George Orwell might have called a good bad musical - very well-done fluff that was basically chewing gum for the brain - the kind of movie that presents life as you sometimes wish it was, which musicals are especially prone to by their nature. Though in justice to what there was of the plot, I should mention that the daughter isn't presented as wanting her father just for the walk down the aisle - in fact, she makes it clear in one scene while having a spat with her mother that one reason she's getting married young (unlike her mother, a free spiritish type who never married) is that she wants to have children who know their father, because growing up not knowing your father is awful and she doesn't want them to experience that. It's actually rather interesting - the mother is presented as thinking her daughter is fine with just one parent and would be traumatized by the sudden appearance of a father, while the daughter is secretly rifling through her mother's old trunks and diaries trying to find the most basic clue about who he is. This isn't to say that you would like it - from the sound of things, it definitely wouldn't be your cup of tea - but I wanted to mention that it at least takes a twenty or thirty-second stab at not being *completely* shallow :).
So, on to musicals I've become acquainted with more than 48 hours ago - how do you like Kander & Ebb? I think they're cynical to the point of exhaustion, but definitely good; certainly nobody experiences any miraculous last-minute transformations in those :). I'd love to see the 1930s movie of Showboat as well - I've only seen clips, but it looks fantastic. I never liked An American in Paris, though - the couple weren't as disparate as Henry Higgins/Eliza, but they never clicked for me. I wonder how My Fair Lady would have ended if Alan Lerner hadn't done the libretto - "older man teaches/falls in love with younger woman" was his staple theme, to the point where, as Mark Steyn put it "He was paying alimony to no less than eight fair ladies."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-08-03 05:44 am (UTC)So, on to musicals I've become acquainted with more than 48 hours ago - how do you like Kander & Ebb? I think they're cynical to the point of exhaustion, but definitely good; certainly nobody experiences any miraculous last-minute transformations in those :). I'd love to see the 1930s movie of Showboat as well - I've only seen clips, but it looks fantastic. I never liked An American in Paris, though - the couple weren't as disparate as Henry Higgins/Eliza, but they never clicked for me. I wonder how My Fair Lady would have ended if Alan Lerner hadn't done the libretto - "older man teaches/falls in love with younger woman" was his staple theme, to the point where, as Mark Steyn put it "He was paying alimony to no less than eight fair ladies."