Fun And Full Of Energy With Great ABBA Songs

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2008)

I've never seen the original stageplay on which this movie is based and so I can't compare the two, but I can't imagine that the movie is any less entertaining than the play. It's fun, full of energy and fast-paced and features some excellent performances. Tops among those must be the performance of Meryl Streep as Donna, a single mom whose wild summer 20 years ago produced a daughter (Sophie, played by Amanda Seyfried) without any knowledge of which one of three possible men is the father. Sophie, about to be married, invites all three to the wedding, assuming she'll know right off who her dad is, but the result is chaos. Streep is a great actress, but in this movie she combined acting with both singing and dancing , and did so brilliantly. Also offering strong performances were Julie Walters and Christine Baranski as the other members of the fictional group the three belonged to. Streep, Baranski and Walters (I would say in that order of descending importance to the movie) overshadowed the three possible dads, played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard.) Their performances were fine, but they couldn't match the women in singing and dancing. Brosnan had most of the singing parts among the men and I just didn't think he captured the essence of the music. This, of course, is not unlike ABBA - whose music is the hub around which the story revolves. The songs featuring Anni-Frid and Agnetha as the lead singers were always better, in my opinion, than those which had Benny and Bjorn as the leads.
If there's a weakness to the story in this movie, it's the very fact that the story is constructed around a series of ABBA songs that were not written to be used as the basis for a script. The result, I thought, was that the story was a bit rough and awkward in places, but the fun and energy of the movie - and the collection of great ABBA songs (of course, that's a selling point only if you're a fan of ABBA) more than make up for the minor weaknesses that pop up. Also worth watching are some hilarious performances by the cast (not part of the story, but apparently just the cast having some fun) as the closing credits are about to begin, complete with the over the top ABBA wardrobe from the '70's. A very enjoyable movie all the way through. 9/10