I caught Mamma Mia! the movie sometime last week and I gotta say, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The plot was a little weak and the story didn't flow quite as well as it should. However, it was quite faithful to the actual musical. Mamma Mia! is relentlessly cheerful and the ABBA tunes featured were infectious and made you wanna sing along too.
Set on a colorful Greek island, the plot serves as a background for a wealth of great ABBA songs which are used in remarkably appropriate ways. A young woman about to be married discovers that any one of three men could be her father. She invites all three to the wedding without telling her mother, Donna.
The story of this film is being told through song instead of just traditional dialogue. When Sophie decides that she wants her father to walk her down the aisle at her wedding, she mails out invitations to the 3 possible candidates and starts singing the song "I Have A Dream".
"I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile"
The lyrics of the song conveys her longing for her to meet her real father. She has never met her real dad in her life and her dream is for him to be present at her wedding to "give her away".
Group communication is also extremely prominent throughout the entire movie. When the lead character Sophie communicates with her best friends, whether it's about the wedding or how her mother's 3 ex-boyfriends are all under the same roof at the moment all thanks to her, they are going through a process called 'group socialisation'.
When Donna communicates with her best friends, you can tell which roles the three of them each undertakes during their discussion. Rosie - the single, fun-loving writer is usually the "harmoniser", the one who attempts to cheer Donna up when she starts crying in the toilet over her three ex-boyfriends. Tanya - the rich three-time divorcée is usually the "encourager", the one who reminds Donna of her free-spirited past.
The group communication between the three possible fathers is also somewhat hilarious since the three of them had no idea what to expect when they first stepped foot on the island for Sophie's wedding. Despite being thrown together unexpectedly, they still manage to get along pretty well while living on Bill's boat.
All in all, Mamma Mia! was a ball of fun to watch. Fans and non-fans of ABBA alike will still enjoy this fluffy movie thoroughly. For those who have watched it, how did you guys like it?
Resources: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795421/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mamma_mia/
3 comments:
hey Chris
Ya, I read your post & I agree group communication was prominent through out...I didn;t realize it though until I read your post! I'm so blur!
Anyway, like you said, it was a fun movie! It brings us young adults and more mature adults together since both groups can enjoy the flick. ^.^
I think Mamma Mia is a rather uplifting movie. The songs were rather catchy and the whole movie was very fun to watch. Haha. I think I was either grinning or laughing most of the time during the entire film. lol.
I have yet to catch this movie and I'm not sure if I'm even going to catch it. Haha. Anyway, I always have a mindset that musical movies like Mamma Mia create a connection with the audience through its music, after all, it's a musical. So in a way, what matters most is its tune and lyrics and how it is used to invoke certain emotions in the audience, and what they gained from the movie at the end of the day.
Take for instance the musical movie Phantom of the Opera. The plot is tragic love story. Hence, the music that was used was rather dark and ballad-like to set the mood for the audience. While on the other hand, the movie Hairspray, which is a musical as well, is cheery and happy. Which is why the music has fast tempo and a catchy tune.
I agree that plot is important in a movie, as that is what ultimately drives the movie forward. But for musical, I have to say that the significance of music surpasses the plot.
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