Probably the worst ever transformation from stage to screen

Rating: 1/10 (7 October 2008)

This is my second review of Mamma Mia as I now have had the chance to watch it as a movie rather than a screen version of the successful stage show.
I think that being eager to have the distribution rights Universal gave Judy Craymer (the producer) a free reign to make the film as she wished. Ms Craymer, with no experience of films or filming, believed that she had an epic musical on her hands. She roped in her stage director, Phyllida Lloyd, who has never made a film before and had no idea how to transform the show from the confines of the theatre onto the big screen. She also roped in her stage choreographer and many other stage crew who also have no idea of the transformation from stage to big screen and the result is an amateurish production that relies totally on the ABBA feel-good factor and a participating audience.
Ms Craymer's idea was to cast big-name stars who, despite the film being a musical, had no singing or dancing abilities. If that was not bad enough, she also hired a cinematographer who had problems getting the light correct and camera angles right. Everything about the film is terrible and an embarrassment to watch at times. The screaming girls at the beginning. Brosnan looking more like James Bond in drag. Julie Walters hopelessly over-acting. Meryl Streep and Christine Baranski behaving like girl guides on their first date, despite supposedly being mature women in their 40s or 50s. The ensemble who were more like young children in a school play than professional dancers. Even in their brief cameos, Benny and Bjorn grinned at the camera as though it was the first time they had ever been filmed. Catherine Johnson's lacklustre script that sounded more like a working class play "We danced on the beach and kissed on the beach and dot dot dot!" to quote a ludicrous example. Brosnan occasionally talking as if he was on the football terraces, particularly when he cheered Meryl on during 'Souper Trouper'. Did anyone check the continuity on the film, as there seemed to be so many disjointed examples particularly whilst Meryl Streep was singing 'Mamma Mia'. At the end when the main stars were dressed in spandex suits they could not contain their laughter. When Meryl sang the moving "The Winner Takes It All", she and Brosnan stood motionless whilst the camera whizzed around in the air. The "Voulez Vous" scene when you could not even work out what was happening on screen, as the camera angles were so erratic.
Even though I have seen the stage show many times, I have no wish to buy the DVD when it is released, as the film was, to put in generously, nothing other than a disastrous amateurish production and probably the worst ever transformation of stage musical to screen. Doubtless, the crew, cast, distributors, financers and ABBA are not bothered. They still got their "Money, Money, Money" and are laughing all the way to the bank.