This film looms large, not just in scale, but in its legacy within the cultural zeitgeist. I knew of the image of Julie Andrews dancing in the field as the camera pushes in on her, Nuns and Nazis were in it, and I knew the songs “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” & “So Long, Farewell.” There’s know reason I should know the words to these songs, but they are so often revisited in our culture that they got slammed into my brain. Surprisingly, despite these things I really knew nothing about the plot, characters, or what could encompass its nearly three hour run time. The opening overture over the beautiful landscapes was so great. It made the music feel natural. This is also the youngest I’ve ever seen Christopher Plummer and he already feels like an old man. it was very interesting to see. While there are a few things that I really adored, like the dance between Maria and the Captain at the party (it is so lovely), Julie Andrew’s infectious joy that she radiates, the production design, costumes, and cinematography, and some of the songs, there is a lot of stuff that is hard to overlook. There is an element of DOGTOOTH or FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC here, with a group of children sealed off from the world and kept rigid since the death of their mother. I felt so bad for all of them especially Liesl who is 16 and forced to hang around her much younger siblings as her only friends, which makes it hard for her to actually grow up (despite her romance with Rolfe). The Baroness is such a strange character. She’s jealous, but is almost played as too much mustache twirly — with the idea of sending away the children so she doesn’t have to deal with them. It feels so overdone. Ultimately the reason the film is able to work is because of its strong themes, character arcs for Maria and Georg, and chemistry between Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. It also feels like the producers really wanted Julie Andrews to bring Mary Poppins on screen (but almost like a younger version of Poppins while she is still a little naïve), since there are a lot of similarities in the two characters.
