Greatest Days - film version

[sispace]

I got to see an advanced screening of the Greatest Days film this evening thanks to Sky VIP. The basic storyline is essentially the same but with a few tweaks. The biggest change is that it keeps flip flopping between the 'girls' and 'grown up Rachel' storylines for large part of it, so the key moment which caused the girls to drift apart, doesn't actually appear to quite late on and didn't seem to have such an impact as it did on stage. There's too much foreboding that 'something happens' with grown up Rachel, which makes it feel a bit off-balance.

The rest of the film seems to be a bit cheesy and camper than I remembered it being when I saw it as 'The Band' on its first tour, with some elements of old-fashioned musicals thrown in. It feels like it's playing up to the Mamma Mia/Drag Race crowd. There's a fun little cameo from Take That themselves though in it.

Overall, enjoyable, but rushed, not sure I'd sit through it again.

[showgirl]

I've found a few online (lessser-known) critics' reviews so far, as this was one of my film options for the coming week, and they all rated it 4 stars so I risked booking. However, I'm not familiar with any of Take That's music or the musical version of this as they were after my time; I was simply looking for an entertaining evening, so hope I won't be disappointed and that the more mainstream critics won't be more scathing. As the film is nearly 2 hours long though, sispace , I'm surprised tht you found it rushed, but maybe the pace was uneven?

[ladidah]

Is it similar to Mamma Mia in storytelling/feel?

[Jon]

Jun 12, 2023 23:54:15 GMT sispace said:

I got to see an advanced screening of the Greatest Days film this evening thanks to Sky VIP. The basic storyline is essentially the same but with a few tweaks. The biggest change is that it keeps flip flopping between the 'girls' and 'grown up Rachel' storylines for large part of it, so the key moment which caused the girls to drift apart, doesn't actually appear to quite late on and didn't seem to have such an impact as it did on stage. There's too much foreboding that 'something happens' with grown up Rachel, which makes it feel a bit off-balance.

The rest of the film seems to be a bit cheesy and camper than I remembered it being when I saw it as 'The Band' on its first tour, with some elements of old-fashioned musicals thrown in. It feels like it's playing up to the Mamma Mia/Drag Race crowd. There's a fun little cameo from Take That themselves though in it.

Overall, enjoyable, but rushed, not sure I'd sit through it again.

Question about the key moment:

SPOILER: Click to show

I'm assuming one of them died in an accident and the other three blame Rachel for it or that it happened on the night of the original concert and affected them so much they drifted apart.

[sispace]

Jun 13, 2023 7:02:43 GMT ladidah said:

Is it similar to Mamma Mia in storytelling/feel?

I must admit, I've only ever clips of the Mamma Mia film, I've tried to avoid it where possible, so I don't know the exact storyline, but in terms of having comedic moments with a group of women singing songs, there are bound to be similarities, however I think The Band/Greatest Days has more depth of story to the characters.

[sispace]

Jun 13, 2023 9:05:39 GMT Jon said:

Jun 12, 2023 23:54:15 GMT sispace said:

I got to see an advanced screening of the Greatest Days film this evening thanks to Sky VIP. The basic storyline is essentially the same but with a few tweaks. The biggest change is that it keeps flip flopping between the 'girls' and 'grown up Rachel' storylines for large part of it, so the key moment which caused the girls to drift apart, doesn't actually appear to quite late on and didn't seem to have such an impact as it did on stage. There's too much foreboding that 'something happens' with grown up Rachel, which makes it feel a bit off-balance.

The rest of the film seems to be a bit cheesy and camper than I remembered it being when I saw it as 'The Band' on its first tour, with some elements of old-fashioned musicals thrown in. It feels like it's playing up to the Mamma Mia/Drag Race crowd. There's a fun little cameo from Take That themselves though in it.

Overall, enjoyable, but rushed, not sure I'd sit through it again.

Question about the key moment:

SPOILER: Click to show

I'm assuming one of them died in an accident and the other three blame Rachel for it or that it happened on the night of the original concert and affected them so much they drifted apart.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
You're not far wrong. Bea, the leader of girl group, gets killed in a car crash just after saying goodbye to her best friend Rachel. I think it's meant to be the day after the original concert. In the stage show this happens quite early in the first half before the adult versions even appear (if I remember correctly). But in the film because they flip flop between the kids/adults they've moved it towards the end when the reunited adults are in Athens and have an argument where the reunion concert took place.

[Deleted]

Jun 12, 2023 23:54:15 GMT sispace said:

I got to see an advanced screening of the Greatest Days film this evening thanks to Sky VIP. The basic storyline is essentially the same but with a few tweaks. The biggest change is that it keeps flip flopping between the 'girls' and 'grown up Rachel' storylines for large part of it, so the key moment which caused the girls to drift apart, doesn't actually appear to quite late on and didn't seem to have such an impact as it did on stage. There's too much foreboding that 'something happens' with grown up Rachel, which makes it feel a bit off-balance.

The rest of the film seems to be a bit cheesy and camper than I remembered it being when I saw it as 'The Band' on its first tour, with some elements of old-fashioned musicals thrown in. It feels like it's playing up to the Mamma Mia/Drag Race crowd. There's a fun little cameo from Take That themselves though in it.

Overall, enjoyable, but rushed, not sure I'd sit through it again.

I quite enjoyed it.  I will say it feels much closer to 'The Band' musical, than the current touring version of 'Greatest Day's', especially the scene where young Rachel is making food in the kitchen and the boys where climbing out of cupboards, and the Ceefax page with the TOTP intro that I miss from the stage version. I think the switching between the the past and present worked for me as it does help build up towards the end of the film that doesn't as work as much on stage due to the 20 minute interval (or for me anyway).

[Mark]

Absolutely loved this. A really great adaptation and really pulls at the heartstrings.

[showgirl]

Saw this yesterday evening and found it disappointing and probably not worth sitting through, but I did stay until the end. I don't mind cliches and (limited) sentimentality if the whole is worth it, but imo it really wasn't in this case. I don't think it mattered that I knew nothing of Take That or any or their music as I don't need to be familiar with songs to enjoy them if they and the script are good (for instance I loved both the film and stage versions of Sunshine On Leith), but this was so slow, predictable and generic. Which may explain why there were only 2 of us in the huge main audtiorium at Curzon Mayfair; awful for the cinema to do such poor business on a fine Saturday evening and I can't see them keeping this film for a second week or at least with fewer performances and in smaller screens if so.

[Rozzi Rainbow]

I have just seen this and thought it was fantastic! I can see why some people might think it's too cheesy though, especially with the appearances of the band. I grew up in the (later) 90s, so this was right up my street.

I saw the stage show once in its original run, and remember really enjoying it. I could remember the very basics of the storyline but not much of the detail. I remembered the "key moment" but not that it was so emotional - I was sat there sobbing in the cinema!! I really liked the overlapping of the two timelines, and I think that made it more emotional, with the "key moment" leading in to the ending - at least in the stage show there was a lot of time to get over the first bit before the ending. I thought it was clever how alike the younger and older actresses were playing the same character - with the one intended exception.

I hope our local cinema keeps showing it a while longer as I'd love to go again. And I hope to get to the current stage production sometime too.

[mkb]

I thoroughly enjoyed this tonight. Perfect feel-good, escapist viewing to wind down with.

Because people tend to be sniffy about this sort of fare, no doubt Aisling Bea will be overlooked, but I thought she turned in a very fine and well-judged performance.

Just very disappointing to see only five people in the auditorium when the latest Marvel tripe is probably packing them in.

Four stars.

[kathryn]

Well, interesting to see how little impact this ended up having!
It came and went with barely a whimper.

I’ve not seen the stage show so can’t comment on the differences, but on the strength of this I don’t think I’ll ever bother.

The fundamental problem with it is how arbitrary it is. ‘The boys’ could be any boyband; they have no distinct identity and are not meant to be Take That. So there’s no particular reason for Take That’s music to be featured in the story. The songs themselves are sprinkled in with a vague notion of plot and character development but not nearly enough for it to feel like a book musical. It’s all oddly flat.

I did like that scene in the kitchen, showing the character escaping her home life in her boyband fantasy. That was the closed it came to justifying it being a Take That musical rather than anything else, though.

Also, if you’re going to do a cameo, I want to see all 5 of them! It’s not a proper ‘Oh, there they are!!’ moment without Jason and Robbie.

[nottobe]

Watched this on prime tonight and oh god it is not a great film at all. Didn't see the stage show and enjoy some take that songs but am not a mega fan. It is such an odd and poorly made piece of so called cinema. Every song is basically the same and the script is not good.

[anthony40]

I've not seen the stage sow, not the film so I'm not in a position to comment as to how good or bad it is but by going from the above, it doesn't sound too good.

I guess time will tell but maybe it was one of this situations where it seemed like a really good idea at the time but looking back in hindsight, a couple of years later, maybe not so.

[alece10]

I gave up after 30 minutes. It was not my kind of film at all.
Overheard my neighbours today talking to friends and apparently they lasted 50 mins before giving up.

[Matt]

Half an hour into it and it’s probably one of the worst musical films I’ve ever seen. It’s awful! All of the songs (so far) are just randomly in it, not even worked into scenes or telling a story.

[Deleted]

I don't hate the movie, in fact I quite enjoyed it, but the transition from stage to screen wasn't handled brilliantly, it's lost some of the magic and the storytelling.

[danb]

I’ve done my chores, so, sat down to watch this extended ‘easyjet’ advert. We’ve hit Athens now so I’m hoping it perks up a bit.

[anthony40]

I've still not seen it #neverforget

[danb]

If it was any lighter it would fly away (on easyjet no doubt). None of the music has any ooomph unfortunately so its nigh on impossible to get uplifted. Quite how you can balls up the pop perfection of ‘The Flood’ or ‘Rule the World’ is beyond me, but they manage to neutralise both to new levels of blandness. A massive missed opportunity, and it has turned me off going to the show when its in Bristol next week. 🥺

[kathryn]

I want a Take That musical made by the Derry Girls team.

They got the specificity of the 90s fangirl so much better!

I keep coming back to and being puzzled by the character who was a diver as a teenager. Why a diver? Completely random.

For a while there I was sorta hoping the girl characters were going to be thinly-veiled representatives of the actual Take That, and that we’d get sly references to their actual story, and it’s all be an interesting-meta take on fans living through their pop idols and pop idols only existing because of their fans. But no.