fun, but uninspired

Rating: 5/10 (20 July 2008)

*caution there may be spoilers* Mama Mia! What a B movie.
I am a lover of musicals, and love those classic musical movies of the 50's and 60's the very most. I went to the movie theatre thinking, 'a musical! This should be fun!' It was fun, especially when the 'greek chorus' would start singing.
The men in it (Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth, and Pierce Brosnan) were all pretty cute, and did a fairly good job with the singing when not doing solos. Poor Pierce got laughed at while singing, even in parts where I'm not entirely sure we were supposed to be laughing.
Amanda Seyfried (That girl from Mean Girls) was really good in her part- she sang well, had a great 'stage' presence, and was just generally very good.
Some of the older ladies, though, seemed less inspired than the males and younger cast. Christine Baranski was the very best, of course, stealing the show whenever she was on screen- though her character never felt like a real person. Julie Walters was funny, but again felt like a shallow unnatural caricature- and her final song was just not good at ALL.
Meryl Streep ended up being the weak link, to me- she had next to no 'stage presence.' Where she was supposed to be the charming lovely dynamo, I just saw a low watt, weak voiced woman who can act well, but not give the songs the energy and pizazz they needed. Half the time she sang, I was uncomfortable. At one point she was singing a song for minutes and minutes, verse after verse, and to this minute I'm still not sure how that song connected to anything in that film- all I know is it was supposed to be dramatic.
The directing was unimaginative and poor. They would do closeups on people singing for minutes, and barely ever did wide shots. I could see great potential for shots what with the beautiful locations, and interesting sets- and they squandered them. Phyllida Lloyd had so much to work with, and did next to nothing with it. Considering how well known she is in the world of theater I would have thought she'd be more imaginative with the musical numbers- instead they were frenetic, poorly shot, and unflattering to most of the actors in every way they can be. This is Lloyds first time to direct a movie for theaters, and it SHOWS.
So while I had some fun, in the end this was very poorly directed, and not a home run by any means. I'm underwhelmed.