Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I kept meaning to post my positive review of "Hellboy II: the Golden Army" all last week, but somehow I never did. And since I used some of my unpaid overtime hours (there's no money budgeted for me to work any overtime at all, so I keep track of extra hours worked for free each week and use them for an extra 'paid holiday' now and then, with my supervisor's blessing) to spend yesterday at the movies instead of in the office, I figured I'd better catch up on my reviews.

To begin with, "Hellboy II" was a bit less dense with backstory mythology than the first "Hellboy" film (so, perhaps it was a bit easier to follow at times), and I appreciated the glimpse -- almost right from the start -- of what life is like for a 60-year-old 20-something fireproof demon trying to adjust to living with his human firestarter one-true-love (since I'd been rooting for Hellboy and Liz to work things out ever since I saw the first movie).

If I found the 'THEME' or 'MESSAGE' of this second film a bit weaker than the first one, that could just be because -- given my own theological background and psychological studies in the doctoral program -- it'd be hard for any message to top the first film's "You may be born a demon but you can choose to be a good person . . . if you're raised by the right parent" moral of the story. Liz's 'BIG CHOICE' scene in this second film -- choosing her beloved Hellboy's life over the theoretical danger he poses to the future of all life on earth, should he ever fulfill his demonic destiny -- could definitely fit in with some of the choices Hellboy made in the first film (not to mention being highly reminiscent to me of Buffy's choice to save Dawn's life in "The Gift"), but it was somewhat overshadowed by NOT being the climax of the movie, which instead depended on Hellboy making the right choice after winning the climactic battle.

Still, in spite of the perhaps less focused message (definite ecological concerns throughout, but those, too, seemed to become slightly buried or overshadowed by the fight scenes at times -- and if you blink, you might miss the 'so-called family values as mislabeled bigotry' sub-theme, which I thought might've deserved more screen time), it's a darned entertaining film. Ron Perlman definitely still looks good in Red.

Then, yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the fact that the foreign film "Mongol" was finally playing at one of the multiplexes near me, hoping that it might help me to suppress the memory of seeing John Wayne play Temudgin (a.k.a. Genghis Khan) in "The Conqueror" on a TV late-show during my formative years. And "Mongol" WAS a gripping and compelling film, with great vistas and very effective acting and special effects in the battle scenes. I couldn't help feeling -- at times -- that I was watching the libretto for a classic Klingon opera . . . but that's not necessarily a bad thing! I quite enjoyed seeing all the fighting and violence interspersed with this 'epic' love story between Temudgin and his wife Borte. Plus, the law Temudgin decides to impose on the lawless Mongols may not be exactly Arthurian in spirit (as in "might for right" and other selected quotes from Lerner & Lowe's 'Camelot') or Mosaic in scope, but it has a beautiful simplicity and practicality to it. What's not to like?

Finally, I couldn't resist checking out "Mamma Mia", since I never got around to seeing the stage version and the music of ABBA has been a semi-guilty pleasure of mine since the 1970's.

I have to agree with some of the critics I've heard, who've noted that the 'high spirits' of the characters on screen seem rather forced and artificial at times. Somehow, some of the magic or willing suspension of disbelief that normally works for me in movie musicals and allows me to perceive the transition from normal conversation to singing and romping about was missing here -- perhaps because I knew the music hadn't been written for the story and so the songs were, of necessity, somewhat artificial in their placement . . . although, even the non-musical 'hijinks' felt forced and unsupported by plot or character development in the first half of the film.

And I'll also agree with the critics who've noted that singing is NOT perhaps what Pierce Brosnan does best on screen (though his vocal inadequacies really only forced themselves on my notice during his "S.O.S." duet with Meryl Streep -- mostly, the music and other voices helped conceal the rough spots in his singing). But, then, he's Pierce Brosnan, for crying out loud, and I'm generally inclined to like anything he does in a romantic role on-screen, so I can get past any qualms about his singing. Besides, it's not like Rex Harrison or Richard Harris or Marlon Brando were particularly good singers, and I still count "My Fair Lady", "Camelot", and "Guys and Dolls" among some of my favorite movie musicals.

The rest of the cast either sang pretty darn well (e.g., Meryl Streep in most numbers, Christine Baranski in all numbers, and, rather astonishingly to me, Colin Firth on the few occasions when his character sang) or apparently sang as little as possible (e.g., Stellan Skarsgard). Meryl Streep was most effective, for me, when she wasn't trying to do broad comedy, either in her singing or non-singing scenes. Somehow, even in this role she seems too smart and substantial to be acting out-and-out SILLY, though I'm willing to admit that her characters should be as entitled to make stupid mistakes or have blind spots or light-hearted moments as anyone else. I just can't 'buy' her as an adolescent exhibitionist (or even former adolescent exhibitionist), though -- I kept wanting to cringe in introvert solidarity at some of her over-the-top physicality in the first half of the film, when there just didn't seem to be any emotional support for her character's behavior.

I was only familiar with about 9 of the ABBA songs used in the film (including the Eurovision song contest winner "Waterloo" and the more ballad-like "Thank you for the Music", which were only sung during the closing credits), but then my entire familiarity with their music came from listening to my little sister's "ABBA Greatest Hits" LP over and over, and since she bought that record in 1977 or thereabouts, I daresay the group continued to put out new music after that album was released.

Finally, all I can say is that -- from the little bit I'd heard about the plot -- I was expecting some sort of modern reinterpretation of the 1968 Gina Lollobrigida film "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" (Italian woman with grown daughter who doesn't know which of three servicemen she slept with is the child's actual father, and all comes to a head when the three possible fathers come back to Italy for an army reunion), but "Mamma Mia" turned out to be a little bit more romantically satisfying than that.

Plus, you get to see the three maybe-fathers-of-the-bride dancing and mugging in 1970's pop-star chic (including glittery skin-tight bell-bottom pants and ridiculously high platform shoes) over the closing credits . . . which in the case of those three actors was almost worth the price of admission in and of itself!