Comments on: In Which I Muse on Mamma Mia! and Maybe Build to a Point

By: Arwen

Arwen — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:16:41 +0000

Saw the movie tonight and really, really loved it.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:11:49 +0000

Loved it, have been twice ( and am 59!) and the women loved it, in fact the after-movie laughter and talk in the ladies room was as much fun as the movie. How refreshing to sse a movie where OLDER women are still sexy and the older men decorative! We all ( the 20 women in the ladies room who stayed longer than needed just to share and bond!) thought the guys were HOt! Loved it. If you haven’t gone, go. Take your girl friends!

By: MA

MA — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:40:05 +0000

saw Mamma Mia, finally, it was everything Kate promised. I had a blast :D

By: Ash

Ash — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:26:10 +0000

Had never seen the stage production and was vaguely familiar with ABBA tunes but LOVED the film! Glad you were wrong on this one, Kate Harding!

By: MA

MA — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:00:09 +0000

I want to see it with my mom. This movie makes me want to see it even more than I did, and makes me want a mom and me date! Wierdly enough I think my dad wants to go see it, and he’s not feeling that great lately, so we should humor him, it may have to be a mom, MA, and dad date, but I WILL see it :D

But I love ABBA. Mom would always play ABBA when she was cleaning the house when I was a kid :D My favorite ABBA song by far is SOS, I am such a sucker for sad songs, and seeing as I am also obsessed with John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers I love youtubes of him covering SOS (this is the cheesiest of the videos visually but the best audio if you want to hear it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fLzqwdePE )

And Sugar Leigh – I do kind of know how you feel, not having people understand your feminist leanings. If a guy is a decent person and has respect and tolerance as they get older it will grow into a true appreciation of feminism. I know tolerance isn’t the ideal, but it’s a start of growth – if they treat women like people long enough eventually they will see us as people. I mean there is a difference between a guy who when he does something to hurt a woman, eventually feels bad about it and some stupid jerk who’s just evil. Even before they “get” feminism and understand you completely they can still make the right choices out of love, I am dealing with the same thing and I’ve grown to accept guys who don’t 100% get it but are good guys and try to just totally ignore the assholes.

By: napthia9

napthia9 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:16:34 +0000

Damn it, I gotta remember to edit my comments.

The end to the second paragraph should read “We will pretend this movie does not exist.”

By: napthia9

napthia9 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:14:06 +0000

I loved this movie. I’m so happy I got to see it with my mother, because she was about to go on vacation and instead postponed because we wanted to go to see it together. I loved the movie, and it made me want to go see the stage version. I love the occasional hokey movie and, well, glitter! And the scene where Donna paints her daughter’s toenails made me a little teary-eyed.

That said, Pierce Brosnan has a nice speaking voice but they damn well should have dubbed his singing over. (Colin Firth, thou art forgiven for making The Accidental Husband. We will pretend

And as long as someone’s brought up race in Mamma Mia, I liked the “Does Your Mama Know You’re Out” scene, but it was interesting that the one non-background black role was the one sexxin up the older white woman. I appreciated the younger guy attracted to the older woman just ‘cos aspect, but I thought of the trend for wealthy white women to pick up young poor black men on vacations and was sort of skeeved out by that. It made me glad the song ends with her not continuing the flirtation; it felt like although her relationships might be temporary, they weren’t as likely to be based in power inequities. But it did make me wonder, in part because he’s the only black actor with a role bigger than “backup dude.” (Even if he’s still a secondary/tertiary character at best.)

By: Bluebell

Bluebell — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:40:44 +0000

Great review – thanks! I took my 9 year old daughter to it because I loved the idea of a movie with women and their friendships as a central part of the story. Plus, that much singing and dancing was fun. To disagree with others, I thought Colin Firth was way cute, but miscast–he looks a good 10 years younger than Brosnan and Sarsgard.

This is also why I let my daughter watch Legally Blond 2 over and over! (Despite some parts of it I don’t love) It’s one of the only movies I’ve seen where the boyfriend just exists to say “You go, honey” to the main character.

By: O.C.

O.C. — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:18:17 +0000

Angelina, I apologize for my comment about the racial makeup of the commenters on this blog. There’d been a debate a few months ago in which a commenter made assumptions about who is commenting here and who isn’t, which were simplistic and unfair. I conflated your comments with hers, and responded testily. I apologize.

By: Lois Waller

Lois Waller — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:12:54 +0000

“It’s only ‘transgressive’ if you’re a white woman, which you are. Because it’s cute for white women to do things (see Juno) that women of color are often beaten for doing (see Juno again).”

I feel dense because this comment is dead-on, yet I didn’t really think about or notice the glaringly raced (and classed) treatment of pregnancy upon learning Juno‘s premise or while watching the movie. But that’s privilege at work again.

You’ve given me a lot of food for thought, Angelina.