Excellent music--so good that even these folks couldn't mess it up completely.

Rating: 3/10 (27 July 2009)

My daughter is right...it's probably better to just pop in an ABBA album than watch this film. However, despite cringing at a few of the songs (one of Pierce Brosnan's solos made my ears bleed and Julie Walter's "Take a Chance" made me attempt suicide--twice) and blanching at the dopey plot, I couldn't help but still enjoy the film on a totally brainless level because no matter who sings the songs (even Pierce), you can't help but tap your feet and enjoy the songs of ABBA...even if it's being sung by boobs. Like most people who saw this film, it brought me back to my younger days when the group was still around...however, my love for ABBA does NOT mean that I am so blinded as to ignore the many dumb moments in this film.
Here are the dumb points to this film:
1. The film is basically BUONA SERA MRS. CAMPBELL set to ABBA music. Come on, folks--try something new.
2.Clichés, clichés, clichés!!! Some of the worst and most amateur writing and dialog I've heard in years.
3. You make a musical and you choose people who can either sing adequately (Streep) or barely at all. Brosnan actually wasn't always horrible in the film (his third solo song was nice) but when he was bad, he was bad....really bad. Worse than Satan bad!
4. It's a great message for the kids here--a heart-warming family film about a single mom who turns out to be a super-slut. And, despite risking STDs and having a kid to raise all alone, everything works out perfectly in the end (14 year-olds take note).
5. Garish production numbers and a case of too much, too often when it comes to the songs. It often took the place of plot and made the film look, at times, like a giant music video. A musical is not the same as a two hour long music video.
So, while it's obvious that I didn't like the movie technically (uggh), it STILL is worth seeing just because ABBA is just amazing. Instead, however, I'd have just preferred they kidnapped Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida and made them perform once last time on film--now THAT would have been worth seeing!
Oh, and while I am thinking of it, all you oldsters out there (like me), you might want to think twice about seeing this film around your kids unless they already love ABBA---otherwise you'll never get them to like or listen to ABBA again after hearing their songs sung so poorly.
By the way, read over Leandro Dubost's review for a laugh. I really enjoyed the Hitler comment--not at all politically correct, but it made me laugh