Mamma Mia!

This movie was so great - I just had to do a blog post all about it! I wanted to see this movie ever since the first time I saw the poster. At first I didn't even know that it was THE musical with ABBA's music and all! I've always been a bit of an ABBA fan. When their music was on the hit lists I was a little girl (I was born in 1970) and my sisters used to listen to their music all the time. It brings back all kinds of great childhood memories.

Problem was that I didn't know who would go with me to watch it. My kids was a big "no ways!" and Leon is not a movie fan at all. I've been thinking of asking a friend to go with me but last Friday the solution presented itself out of the blue!

Leon and I went to Pretoria to get his car fitted with some stone chip protection film stuffies. The fitment centre is located in Menlyn - just up the street from Menlyn shopping centre. I'm not a big fan of shopping malls (to say the least!) and Leon (being the macho outdoors type of guy that he is) is even worse! So here were were - in the big city - with a whole day to kill as they told us that it could take up to 8 hours to finish the job on his car!

We hit the mall at just after 8:00 am. All the shops were still closed but most of the restaurants and coffee shops were open. We had breakfast at the Mugg & Bean (yum!) and while we sat there trying to figure out what to do next, Leon suggested that we go to the movies. We had to get up at 3:30 am that morning so we both were a bit tired and he reckoned that if we go to watch a "boring love story or something" he could catch up on a little sleep. I thought it was a great idea and immediately said we must go watch Mamma Mia. We got our tickets for the 9:30 show! Definitely the earliest movie show that I have ever been to!

When Leon saw the movie posters he was "not impressed" to put it mildly. But - that suited him fine because he wanted to catch up on some lost sleep. The movie started and it grabbed me from the start! What a great intro with the girl on the boat in the moonlight on her mission to post the invites to her 3 Dads. Every now and then I looked to see if Leon was still awake and to my surprise - he was! He just couldn't stop watching this movie! He loved the music and the acting and the beautiful story line just as much as I did!

I have always been a Meryl Streep fan. Her acting is always so real! In this movie she took on the persona of her character brilliantly! Wow! What a great actress! The rest of the cast were (almost) just as good! What makes it even more special for me is that it was the actors themselves who sings the songs and even though their singing is not always that good, it is real, which counts much more in my books than perfect singing.

That island on which the movie was made (Skopelos - click on this link if you want to see beautiful photos of the gorgeous place) is sooooooo beautiful and the old buildings are so adorable! I wish I could go there one day. I just may not want to leave there - ever! It looks sooo romantic!

I wanted to dance out of the cinema and the feeling stayed with us the entire day that we had to "walk the mall"! It really helped us to get through the day. We did some shopping and got back to the car at 16:00 - tired but in good spirits!

I told Leon that I think I love him just a little bit more - just because he loved this movie with me! :)

Well done to the makers of this brilliant movie!!!