Mamma Mia!

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2009)

I mainly watched this movie because loads of people were talking about it, and I do like a good number of the songs from ABBA, it became the highest-grossing movie of the 2000s (Avatar came out 2009, made it all its money in 2010), and I can see why now, based on the stage musical. Basically on the Greek island of Kalokairi, young Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) is to be married to boyfriend Sky (Dominic Cooper), and she wants her father at the wedding. She sends invitation letters to the three potential men, without telling her mother Donna (Golden Globe nominated Meryl Streep), all three are mentioned in her mother's diary. Architect Sam Carmichael (Razzie winning Pierce Brosnan), banker Harry Bright (Colin Firth) and sailor and travel writer Bill Anderson (Pirates of the Caribbean's Stellan Skarsgård) don't know each other, but all had a relationship with Donna around the same time. Sophie dreams of being given away by her father at her wedding and believes that after she spends time with them she will know which is her father. Donna owns a villa and runs it as an unsuccessful hotel, she is ecstatic to be reunited with her former Dynamos bandmates, Rosie Mulligan (Julie Walters) and Tanya Chesham-Leigh (The Grinch's Christine Baranski). The three men arrive, and Sophie smuggles them into their room, she does not reveal one of them is her father, but she does reveal she is the one that sent the invites. Sophie begs them to hide in order to surprise Donna, but she spies them and is dumbfounded seeing all three of her former lovers. Donna confides in Tanya and Rosie that she has no idea which of them is father to Sophie, while Sophie finds them on Bill's yacht, and they tell stories of Donna's carefree youth. Sophie loses her nerve to tell Sky of her plot when he is abducted for his bachelor party, so Sophie has her bachelorette party, where Donna, Tanya, and Rosie perform. When Sam, Bill and Harry arrive, Sophie decide to talk each of them alone, she assumes Bill is her father and is happy to have him give her away at the wedding, but then Sam and Harry each pull her aside to tell her as her father they will give her away, she is overwhelmed and faints. While Bill and Harry try to tell each other what they have learned, and are interrupted by Rosie, Donna confronts Sophie, believing she wants to stop the wedding, she says all she wants is to avoid the same mistakes her mother made. Sam confronts Donna, concerned about Sophie marrying so young, in their confrontation they realise they still have feelings for each other. While Tanya flirts with Pepper (Philip Michael), Sky's best man, Sophie confesses to Sky and asks for his help, he reacts angrily to her deception. Donna helps Sophie dress for the wedding, they reconcile, Donna reminisces about her daughter's childhood, and she admits that her mother disowned her when she became pregnant, Sophie asks her mother to give her away. As the guests gather in the chapel, Sam intercepts Donna, who reveals the pain she felt over losing him, as when they were together he was engaged to another woman. Sophie and Donna walk down the aisle, Donna tells her daughter that any of Sam, Bill and Harry could be her father, while Sam reveals that he never married the woman he was engaged to, he returned to find Donna with another man. Sam, Bill and Harry decide they do not want their paternity confirmed, agreeing to be one-third of a father to Sophie. Sophie tells Sky they should postpone their wedding so that they can travel the world. Sam proposes to Donna, she accepts, and they get married, at the reception everyone rejoices, Rosie makes a play for Bill, Sam and Donna are happy together, and Sophie and Sky sail away. Also starring ABBA's Benny Andersson as Piano Player on Boat and ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus as Greek God. Featuring the ABBA hits "I Have A Dream", "Money, Money, Money", "Mamma Mia", "Chiquitita", "Dancing Queen", "Our Last Summer", "Lay All Your Love on Me", "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", "Voulez-Vous", "SOS", "Does Your Mother Know", "Slipping Through My Fingers", "The Winner Takes It All", "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", "When All Is Said and Done", "Take a Chance on Me", "Waterloo" and "Thank You for the Music". All the actors do their best to sing, some good, like Steep, some average, only Brosnan is laughably naff, but all the songs (with some words tweaked) fit well into the story, the choreography is okay, to be honest, you can just ignore any imperfections and go along with it, have fun singing along, a fun jukebox musical romantic comedy. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. Very good!