A Great, Big Budget Home Movie.

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2008)

OK, so this film is unlikely to win any awards for direction - not even from a partisan British Academy - but I suspect that is part of what makes it work. Mama Mia is a great big home movie with a cast, sound track and location to die for. Adding to the home movie feel, and I suspect to the charm of the film for many,is seeing superstars stripped of the Hollywood trappings and at times looking more than a touch vulnerable. On this showing, perhaps we could all do it! Certainly my husband can sing better than Pierce Brosnan - though he may be lacking in other areas! If Julie Walters' performance had been her first, surely it would also have been her last, and why producers go on casting Colin Firth is beyond me. But who cares, this movie is fun, totally harmless fun and such a pleasant change to the social comment dirges or gratuitously violent bloodbaths that fill our screens. Go and see it not to be moved, not to be shocked, not to be scared, just to be wonderfully entertained.