Sound of Mucus?

Rating: 5/10 (16 April 2011)

This is the heart warming story of an Austrian nun (Julie Andrews) who enters the Von Trapp family as the governess of Georg Von Trapp's (Christopher Plummer) seven mischievous yet adorable children, and ends up entering their hearts with her warm personality and sugar coated music. At the risk of sounding cheesy, 'The Sound of Music' is regarded as one of the most loved cinematic treats of all times. Full of now- popular songs and laced with extravagant background score, the film has its own soul.
The beautiful cinematography takes you to a trip of the magnificent land of Austria during the time of the Second World War. The hummable songs include the all time favorites like 'the Lonely Goatherd', 'So long, farewell' and many more. No matter how stone hearted you are, you get emotionally attached to the adorable children of the Von Trapp family.
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Though, a few points cannot be overlooked. Julie Andrews' portrayal of Maria, the carefree and loving nun, comes out to be more artificial and over-the-top than realistic. Based on the hit musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein II on the memoirs of Maria Von Trapp, the film is naive in characterization as almost all the characters displayed are one dimensional. The only character balancing the cheese being oozed by almost everyone is Christopher Plummer's Cpt. Georg Von Trapp.
All throughout the film, Plummer seems detached from the surroundings which helps his character. No matter how popular, hummable or adorable the songs are; some of them just catch you defenseless. Unlike the hit musicals like 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'The Wizard of Oz', some of the famous songs in the film are out of context at times. It is always hard to explain in a musical why a song is relevant, but some of the inappropriate situations for the songs make them just unacceptable. The children singing in the festival or in a party sounds reasonable, but a senior mother of the church singing valuable lessons of life to her confused nun, is just too unrealistic for me to stomach.
Some other characters like The Baroness and the postman have sudden change of values at the appropriate points in the film. There is a 70% chance that you will like this highly entertaining and lovable family film. But if you are a fan of more realistic and easy to digest stories, even if it is about a computer program controlling the world, this is not your cup of tea. For a musical enthusiast too, this is not one of the best musicals you'll see.