Cute, bubbly. Lacking substance.

Rating: 6/10 (19 December 2008)

Mamma Mia! - Based on the hit Broadway musical, Mamma Mia! Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) invites three men (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard) her mother slept with 20 years ago to try and find which one is her dad. Why a paternity test or even just a sit down talk to with them and her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) could not have resolved this issue is completely ridiculous *obviously*. Your tolerance of Mamma Mia! is conditional on your liking musicals, acceptance of ABBA, and stamina for cheeriness.
First off, Meryl Streep can sing quite well and does "The Winner Takes it All" quite well. Amanda Seyfried can also sing well. Julie Walters and Christine Baranski can sing but very few of these actresses are given songs that show their voices at their best. Consequently the musical numbers are uneven, if catchy. Some are decent. Some are quite fun in fact, but some fall flat through poor staging. I'm fine with people singing in a film, though it is a little insipid when villagers pipe in here and there with no clue as to what's going on. It's far too cornball.
Several actors are given songs where there's no way they should be singing them. I often felt really bad for Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan. Neither has any talent for singing, yet Brosnan given 5 songs. You can see them giving it their best shot and trying to have fun. All the guys here look terribly uncomfortable, not unlike guys pulled into the women's wear at a JCPenney by their girlfriends. It's a hens party through and through.
I think America has a real musical phobia going on. We seem repulsed by Broadway, and the only way musicals get to the silver screen is if the music was done by some known band. In Across the Universe it was The Beatles. Now it's ABBA. The double edged sword is that the songs, as was the case in Across the Universe, often have very little to do with the proceedings. In most musicals the music is there to advance the plot and tie in with what is happening. In Mamma Mia!, Characters do not actually get to have discussions, but merely have brief interactions until the next unrelated musical number comes in.
When the movie doesn't try so damn hard, it's fun. Alas, everyone runs around too much, laughs too hard, and it sometimes feels forced. I don't even have to have seen the stage show to know it was better. The film is cute and often fun, but it's like a cloud. It's light and wispy and completely lacking in substance. In many respects it's a fine holiday film for when you're stranded in your house with nowhere to go. Just don't go in asking for anything solid. Mama Mia! gets a B-