Way too old!

Rating: 4/10 (26 July 2008)

I took my 11-year-old daughter , a fan of the musical and Broadway soundtrack, to see Mamma Mia last week and we were both very disappointed in this movie. With the exception of Colin Firth, all of the principal actors were about 15 years too old for their roles. Ms. Streep looked every bit of her nearly 60 years, which is not a problem by itself but was very jarring in this film because Donna should be in her 40s. Sophie, Donna's daughter, says she's 20 years old. How much sympathy is the audience supposed to feel for a woman who bore a child out of wedlock and was disowned by her family in her late 30s? Sandra Bullock and Cheryl Hines would have been better choices for the roles of Donna and Tanya. I don't know if they can sing but they're the right age. Stars in this age range may not want to admit, or be typecast as, being old enough to be the parents of a 20-year-old in a culture where all women between the ages of 16 and 60 are expected to look 25. But my daughter and I found that our enjoyment of this film greatly suffered because of the terrible casting. We'll go back to the musical when the touring company brings it to town again but I can't recommend the movie.