A young bride-to-be discovers that one of three men from her mother's past is her father and plots to get them to her wedding so that she can find out which one it is.

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2013)

MAMA MIA! Donna (Meryl Streep) is a single mom raising her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) on a beautiful Greek Island. Sophie is planning for her wedding to Sky (Dominic Cooper) and comes across an old diary that belonged to her Donna during the time she became pregnant with Sophie. Sophie discovers from the diary that there are three possible men that could be her father, Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth), and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and more than anything she wants her dad at her wedding. Unfortunately for Sophie, more than anything Donna wants none of them to be at the wedding.
And the fun begins!! Donna has never divulged any information to Sophie about her father, except that he was not an option that needed to be in their lives. But now, Sophie is all consumed with her dad and what it would mean to her to know him and have him at her wedding. So she secretly invites all three men to her wedding under the pretense that Donna wants each of them there. Donna used to be in girls singing group called Donna and the Dynamos, with her best friends Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) and so naturally she invites them to the wedding and it becomes a wonderful reunion for the three of them that brings back old memories, heartaches, secrets and a lot of fun.
As the guests are arriving, so do the three possible dads, and low and behold, they meet each other on the boat ride to the island, not realizing that they are all there on a false pretense and for the same reason.
During the process of discovery for the bride-to-be, many old feelings resurface for Donna and the men. When she first learns that they are on the island and Sophie knows that one of them is her father, Donna is outraged. She goes through every emotion from anger, fear, sadness, elation, paranoia, and confusion and she does it so well.
Every fiber of this movie is told with music and singing. One of the things that I enjoyed the most was the way the camera caught so many different angles of the character's movements. Angles that add depth to the film, such as the scene where the three best friends are singing "Dancing Queen." The trio is all over the place, acting out the lyrics of the song, helping to relate Donna's current mood to lyrics that are universally familiar. And the musicit's the reason I watched this film the first time.
The entire movie is a celebration of ABBA's greatest hits and it feels like the screenplay was created around the music...the two fit like a glove. This film is a wonderful combination of young love, old flames, emerging secrets and a warm, lighthearted story about finding yourself, no matter what how young or how old, and no matter at what price. Once Sophie has set the ball in motion, there is no stopping the laughs, tears, and fun! This is a wonderful movie and I give it a 10; I highly recommend it for anyone who is young at heart, a romantic and loves emotion in song.