Gut Reaction: Mamma Mia! (2008)

It’s starting to seem like last year’s wonderful comedy “Juno” was from some other movie universe, where people react like real people and talk in more interesting ways. Here in this universe, we have to put up with movies like “Mamma Mia!”, where the people sing real pretty most of the time but talk and act like they’ve had pieces of their brains removed.

Remember that scene towards the end of “Juno,” where Juno decides that since Vanessa wants a child, and is more financially stable, and is smart and sweet, that it doesn’t matter who the “real” parent is, only who will love the kid? That scene has more intelligence in it than the entirety of “Mamma Mia!”. There were moments here where I wanted to yell at the screen to keep the characters from having another stupid misunderstanding that would be cleared up if they only stopped acting like idiots.

A perfect example; on her wedding day, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is distressed because her mother is worried about the three men she’s invited to the wedding to prove that she… screw that, no. The point is, Sophie says to her mother, Donna (Meryl Streep), “You don’t want me to get married at all, do you?” and starts crying and carrying on. Then they have a fight. There’s not a shred of a reason for them to fight except for them to cry and make up later.

The movie centers around Sophie’s wedding day. She’s found her mom’s old diary, where it shows that one of three men could be her father. So she invites all three men to the wedding. They’re played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard, all of them former lovers of Donna, her mother. When they get there, the movie is a very long series of events where one person is trying to keep a secret from another person. Sophie hides the men in the goat house, where of course Donna will never look. It’s agonizing to watch these people rushing around trying to avoid each other in the finger-quotes wackiest way possible, just to avoid a three-minute conversation that might be sort of awkward. If the relationships with any of the men had been given any weight at all, there might have been some justification for what passes as humor here.

“Mamma Mia!’ isn’t a complete waste. There are two legitimately good performances here- Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan have natural and charming screen presences that show through even with the awful dialogue they have to recite, but then again, they’re only two characters in the movie with anything to do. Brosnan, God bless him, can’t sing to save his life. I also like most of the music, and the choreography suits the energy level. But many of the songs feel too repetitive and too short. “Dancing Queen” is, what, one chorus and one verse?

But for every song that does work, there’s a scene of boring, obvious, agonizing dialogue or plot contrivance. There’s also a performance by Christine Baranski that is like fingernails on the blackboard for me.

But y’know what’s really the problem here? No on took the time to write a script with characters and dialogue and a meaningful series of events building to a climax. No one took the time to make a movie. They threw a bunch of fundamentally unconnected songs together and hoped a miracle would happen. It makes me think of last year’s “Across the Universe,” which also used pop songs, but had a story based around characters and ideas rather than contrivance.

If “Mamma Mia!” succeeds, and here’s hoping it doesn’t, it will be on the backs of the talents of ABBA and the fans of the stage show. The legacy of the band could probably float more than one movie, and maybe it deserves to. But it’s certainly worth more of a plot than this garbage.

Gut Reaction: The Dark Knight (2008)

Being a particularly nerdy type, the Husband and myself managed to score advance screening tickets to see “The Dark Knight”. We’ve been home all of ten minutes, and I feel that my feelings on the film can be summed up thusly:

Holy freakin’ christ, go see this damned movie.

Allow me to expand: This is not a comic book film. Yes, it’s based off a comic book character, and yes, it uses elements of particularly excellent “Batman” canon for its story*, but this is not a comic book movie. This is a stone-cold-turn-you-inside-out-and-upside-down crime thriller with characters faced with hard decisions and performances that are, to be brief, stunning.

To be less brief, let it be known that we’re officially on the bandwagon of the amazing abilities of the late Heath Ledger. We were both fans of his before, and this movie, no matter when he would have made it in his career, would have simply made us appreciate him more. His Joker is definitive. Nicholson’s Joker was a sad imitation to the depth and breadth Ledger gave to the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. He’s not just some wackjob giggling away in a big dark room; Ledger’s is a Joker that wants to get his hands dirty, and that is the ultimate point of the Joker. He is crazy, and loves it, and Ledger brings that to the film with a sharp, sure edge that will make you shift and wince and crave to see just a bit more.

Ledger’s is not the only performance worth its weight. Aaron Eckhart is a strong, compassionate, understandable Harvey Dent. He is a man who wants to make his city a better place, and he means it sincerely. Everything he says is coated in a pure truth, and his evolution throughout the film is brilliantly paced. Maggie Gyllenhaal breathes life into Rachel Dawes in a way Katie Holmes never did. Gyllenhaal’s Dawes is a woman who doesn’t run scared, because Gotham is her city, and she knows all its dark corners. I felt throughout “Batman Begins” that Katie Holmes was a second from fleeing the set. Gyllenhaal’s Dawes is a much more believable character, if only because she appears to have a real understanding of the truth of the darkness of the city.

Christian Bale continues to own his role as Batman, and watching him hit the struggling philosophical moments just makes the journey that much sweeter. Batman, in his early days, should be shown weighing the pros and cons of what he does, and Bale does an excellent job of bringing that struggle out in a way that doesn’t seem forced or over-the-top. We should care about Batman because he’s Batman, not because the brooding onscreen forces us to do so. Michael Caine hands us an Alfred that Batman needs. He’s caring, he’s compassionate, and he knows when to look Batman in the face and call him on his crap. Morgan Freeman produces a Lucius Fox who is useful, highly intelligent, and sly in a way that is utterly necessary to the way the story fleshes out.

A brief paragraph for Gary Oldman, all on its own: There is not a better man to be playing Jim Gordon. Oldman gives a smart, tough, but ultimately idealistic man who you love because he’s just so damned decent, and that’s how Gordon should be. There is a moment in the film where Gordon shows up, and the audience burst into spontaneous applause, so in love were they with this plain, decent man.

Okay, enough about the acting, although it’s superb, let’s talk plot: The plot twists and turns and twists some more, but where some films would leave you scratching your head, “The Dark Knight” lets you keep up. You keep up by keeping on the edge of your seat, but you keep up all the same. This is a smart, well-written, beautifully paced film, and watching it bloom from the opening scene to the final title card will leave you gasping. There was spontaneous applause throughout the film; not just for Jim, but for bits and pieces as the various threads of the plot began to tie up. The action scenes are phenomenal. There are, at individual times, explosions, giant fires, plenty of fist fights, and, in case you needed it, possibly the top two car chases to ever be put on film. Yes, “The Matrix Reloaded” had a seventeen minute chase scene, and yes, they did lots of cool tricks, but the way the chase scenes end out in “The Dark Knight” make them better, plain and simple.

“The Dark Knight” is a film pushed forward by the strength of its performances and followed on its heels by the astounding feats completed by the stunt department. You will gasp, you will jump, you will laugh, just a touch, and you may even tear up a bit. See it. Now. Because you have any love in your heart of film at all.

*Ledger was given a copy of “The Killing Joke” to give him a starting place for the Joker he produced for the film. The Nolan brothers based quite a few of their plot points on “The Long Halloween”, which was written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale.