Whatever you do - DON'T DO THE MATH

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2008)

I like Abba, I like Meryl Streep, I like Greece, so why did I leave feeling a little disappointed? I didn't see the stage play so I can't compare it, however, take out the spectacular Greek scenery and what you are left with is a very stagey-performance. Overacting, simplistic choreography, and stage gimmicks (like a trampoline bed) made for an unexciting presentation.
Worst of all is the math... The bride is supposed to be 20 and yet the three possible fathers ranged from an ex flower power hippie to a punker... I remember 1988 -- Abba was uncool, Punk was all but dead, Disco was very dead, and hippies had been dead for so long they were due for a revival. Perhaps the movie should have made some reference to being set in 2001 when the play originally opened? That would mean the summer she met the men would have been 1980 -- a little more believable. But, however you slice it... Meryl was too old to play the part since in 1980 she would have been 30 and most women who get pregnant at the age of 30 don't get kicked out of the house by their mothers...
Regardless, I still enjoyed myself, just not as much as I had hoped I would.