The Sound Of Music review

Like The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music is as much a part of a family Christmas as mince pies and rows over who gets the skin off the custard. As enjoyable now as it was back in 1965, it is, of course, the wholesome tale of young Maria (Andrews, in a role originally envisaged for Audrey Hepburn), who leaves an Austrian convent to become governess to the von Trapp children. Plummer is perfect as the stern Baron von Trapp (can you imagine Yul Brynner or Sean Connery in the role, as they were both considered), whose heart is slowly melted by Maria’s songs and jolliness, just in time for the pair to gather up the family and flee across the Alps to evade the Nazis.
Yes, everything you could want in a film is here – sing-along songs (‘Do-Re-Mi’, ‘My Favourite Things’, ‘Sixteen Going on Seventeen’ and the weepy ‘Edelweiss’, to name a few), cutesy kids, teen romance, nasty Nazis, more songs, and the gorgeous picture-postcard scenery. Definitely one for all the family to enjoy (though older kids and teens will probably gag at the sheer loveliness of it all) – altogether now: ‘Doe, a deer, a female deer…’