On a bus trip to Lake George, which my beloved and I took, yesterday, they showed "Mamma Mia!" I had seen it three times, but not in awhile, so I decided to give a fourth viewing. It was a revelation!
I don't know why this is not more of a gay movie! Just like I don;'t know why Dominic Cooper's career never went anywhere, from here.
Of course it is MERYL's movie. This is the film where, if you ever doubted her ability to do anything, this shows she can. This is where you see MERYL--MERYL STRREP, darlings-- actually handle and operate a drill and a bit! With me, it's like Mayor Koch and a twat! I wouldn't know what to do with either!
MERYL also runs a hotel, operates it as a successful business, and raises a teenage daughter, in the most gorgeous setting imaginable, where she plans to give her daughter the most gorgeous wedding imaginable! As only MERYL can!
But something I learned on this viewing, girls!!!!!!!!! The one we all want to be--at least I do--is not MERYL, but Amanda Seyfried, as Sophie!
I love that the film opens and closes, with Amanda in blue. We all want to look that good, so let's start with that. Then, there is Sophie's hair! We all want it! She has MERYL for a mother, so, like, who needs a wedding planner???????? But I am telling you, on this viewing, the highlight of the ENTIRE film was Amanda Seyfried pulling off her dress, and diving off that pier, to her "alleged" fathers, with that bathing suit and perfect hair. The dive was so flawless, I was, like, "Did she REALLY do that?"
I wanted to be young again, have that body, and be able to execute a dive like this! Only in my dreams, darlings!
So, while MERYL as Donna leads, Amanda, as Sophie is actually the film's focal point! Now, I have find a stylist and a wedding planner fast!
But honestly! With a all the eroticism of "Lay Your Love On Me"--including a chorus of gorgeous gay men in flippers dancing on a pier, MERYL dancing, leaping, and running a business, and Amanda flitting through a fairy tale existence that we all want, to songs like "Honey, Honey," "Mamma Mia!" should be more of a gay cult film! I don't get why it's not, unless...wait....of course I get it...it has style and taste, something the more homogenized gays of today do not understand!
Pity!
I mean, just look at this!!!!!!!!!!! Who wouldn't want it??????????????
Not to mention having Amanda's hair and wedding gown, and MERYL helping you get ready for the wedding??????? I mean, I am not going to call my Super anymore; I am going to call MERYL!!!!!!!!!!!! And she can plan our wedding, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will never forget my first time seeing Meryl's take on "Winner Takes It All" - she completely blew me away. The ABBA version had totally slipped thru the cracks of my memory, eclipsed by their bigger hits. But Meryl cut me to the core: she turned that little ditty into tragic operetta akin to "I Dreamed A Dream"! Not bad for a woman who (lets be honest here) was never in a million years appropriate casting for a jukebox musical. She was a bit wobbly in other parts of the film, probably because it occurred to her she was WAY out of her wheelhouse. But I paid to see the entire movie three times, just to see her do "Winner" at the end (then I bought the DVD).
ReplyDeleteBetween the cinema tickets and the dvd, I spent as much as it would have cost to see the show on Broadway, which is really funny because I hadn't had the slightest interest in the stage version. It was all the fault of one of your Monsieur's acquaintances, who had his 50th birthday party at a screening of the movie in Chelsea.
ReplyDeleteI asked David about this, and he thinks the person in question was Larry Friedman. Yes, Meryl takes that ordinary song to a place it has never been taken, before or since. I loved her musical turn; who knows she might have been a musical star had she taken that path? She was training for opera as young as high school, before Yale, and the person she studied voice with worked with Beverly Sills.
Meryl may not have had the chops for classical opera, but Broadway? Absoulutely. She could STILL do Desiree in "A Little Night Music." THAT I would pay to see.