Confused

Rating: 4/10 (23 July 2008)

Forgive me for being cynical and for putting out everyone's fire but I seriously cannot understand the hype. I have an active imagination like any other, but there is a difference between make believe and a storyline that doesn't make sense. Can someone please tell me why, if this is set in modern times, it references them meeting in the summer of love (with old photographs that show Colin Firth looking like something from Mott the Hoople circa 1970's) and the subsequent brief encounters that year between the mother and possible fathers  using my calculations, this would make Sophie at least 39!! Alternatively, if this is set in the 1980's, why the futuristic references to the internet?!! I also can't get my head around the American girl who has grown up in Greece with an American accent and 2 British (one Scottish) childhood friends, not to mention her English fiancée. Is the island of Skiathos such a melting pot of cultures? Whilst I'm on my soap box, I can't fail to mention the far from seamless scenes where they launched into song for no apparent reason (whether it was relevant to the plot or not) which left me cringingly peeping through my fingers. I really wanted to enjoy this film (I was desperately trying to find the scene where the chorus line are dancing in flippers amusing) but no amount of imagination could make this possible. There's no doubt the mise-en-scene and the views were breathtaking and that the songs are brilliant  that goes without saying. But I could have got more fun for my money blasting out my ABBA gold album in the car, which is what I did on the way home... Long live ABBA!