One of the worst film musicals I have ever seen.

Rating: 1/10 (14 January 2009)

This is an absolutely awful film, but I have to admit, I wasn't really expecting much from it. The idea of having all those great ABBA songs put into a musical sounds like a good idea, but when I saw who was going to be in it, I knew it was a no-hoper from the word go.
Meryl Streep, despite all the claims in her favor, cannot sing and/or carry a musical. Barbara Streisand can, Julie Andrews can, but not Meryl Streep. Stick to drama and accents, Meryl.
All the ABBA songs are performed in such an over-the-top and forced way that you simply cannot enjoy what's going on. Initially I was surprised there were so many songs in the film, but unfortunately, the cast ruined each and every one of them for me.
The choreography is chaotic, with everyone dancing around, trying to be desperately happy, and perhaps the cast all had fun, but the audience certainly doesn't.
And who thought that either Pierce Brosnan or Colin Firth would make good leading men in a musical? Clearly the director has never seen a musical before.
CHICAGO, MOULIN ROUGE, HAIRSPRAY and the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL films were all excellent and helped revive a genre that has been on its last legs for years. All something like MAMMA MIA! can do is kill the musical genre all over again.
It's a self-indulgent, joyless piece of clap-trap.
Please...don't make a sequel!