Put your brain in neutral and just go along for the ride!

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2008)

I am an unashamed lover of musicals. Always have been and probably always will be, so I was more than willing to enjoy this piece of classic Friday Night Fluff, mediocre reviews notwithstanding. It's unpretentious and frivolous, modestly entertaining and whilst not brilliant, it's not as bad as many people have suggested.
Musicals come in all shapes and forms, from the dramatic and dark (Sweeney Todd) to the Sixties Rock variety (Hair) to the utterly brilliant (West Side Story) and all points in between. The best musicals don't date, which is why Oklahoma sounds better than Hair these days. Mamma Mia doesn't readily fit into any usual musical category because the story was written long after the songs first saw the light of day, and it was written to fit (and it's not always a perfect fit) around existing songs. I'm old enough to have been an Abba fan when they were at their height, although at the time I doubt I would have admitted it publicly. Very uncool.. I haven't seen the stage show.
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is very young, pretty and lives with her Mum Donna (Meryl Streep) on a beautiful Greek island. She is about to marry Sky (Dominic Cooper) and arguably anyone who can think seriously about marrying a guy called Sky is obviously far too young to get married. But she wants the works, white wedding, romantic church, all her friends and, most of all, she wants to be given away by her father. But that's the problem, she doesn't know who her father is, although perusal of her mother's pilfered diary, has narrowed the field down to 3 potential studs, Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård). She invites them all to the island, thinking foolishly that as soon as she sets eyes on him, she will instinctively recognize her father, but she doesn't, and the movie follows the trials and tribulations of the following day or two, against the beautiful backdrop of a Greek island. Donna is less than happy to see the 3 old boyfriends, but very happy to be reunited with Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski), her old pals from the days when she sang in a girl group. As this is a musical, people launch into song and dance in ridiculous ways and places, and we, the audience, get to revisit most of Abba's old hits.
Many, many others have already commented on Pierce Brosnan's absence of vocal talent so I won't labour the point, except to say that it really doesn't detract much from the fun, and I think he's quite well cast overall  Brosnan can carry off almost anything these days. Meryl Streep is simply superb. Is there anything this woman can't do? At the age when most female actors are complaining that there are no good roles for women, Streep appears to be having the most fun of her career. She paid her dues with the harrowing roles in her youth (Sophie's Choice, Kramer v Kramer etc), now she has reinvented herself in comedy drama (The Devil Wears Prada) and a musical. I adore her! Whatever you may think overall of Mamma Mia, I challenge anyone not to be gobsmacked by Streep's performance of The Winner Takes It All just before the wedding scene. It's a showstopper. I was also quite surprised to be genuinely moved by Slipping Through My Fingers, as sung pre-wedding by mother and daughter Streep and Seyfried (possibly it resonated because I have a daughter of exactly that age.) And as a middle aged woman, how can I fail to love the sight of Christine Baranski dancing with twenty or so twenty something males on the beach, while belting out Does Your Mother Know? at the top of her lungs! No it won't win any Oscars, but I make no apologies for having loved it!
One thing that struck both my husband and me (yes he came too and hummed along through most of it) was that the younger members of the cast were simply acted off the screen by the old codgers. Seyfried was perhaps a little weak as Sophie, sweet but rather vapid, although she does bear a striking resemblance to Streep, so made a convincing daughter. Cooper was basically a prop for her cuteness. The rest of the younger cast members I have forgotten entirely, although they danced energetically enough. The middle-agers stole the show, which makes a pleasant change.
Not a great movie, but more than adequate. My only real question is what happened to Knowing Me Knowing You, my favorite Abba song? No - on reflection it's probably best that I recall it as my favorite Abba song, rather than listen to Pierce Brosnan strangle it!