Pleasant, but unremarkable rendition of the far better stage hit

Rating: 6/10 (3 April 2009)

Back when the stage show Mamma Mia first arrived, I refused to see it largely because it sounded inane to me. A year later still going strong on Broadway, I knuckled under and was stunned at how much joyful fun that it turned out to be. The energy between the performers and the audience and the show's unflinchingly sunny demeanor were infectious. Unfortunately, these are elements that are incredibly difficult to translate to the screen, as proved by the film adaptation of the same show.
The slight storyline is a transparent reworking of Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell. Set on an exotic Greek island, Meryl Streep finds her world turned upside-down when wedding preparations for her daughter Amanda Seyfried to Dominic Cooper are interrupted by the arrival of three men from her past, one of whom unknowingly is the father of the bride. The storyline only has to be good enough to hang a wide diversity of ABBA songs on – and for the most part it is. However, the film takes some liberties from the play that simply do not work on screen.
The lion's share of the muted effect of this film, cannot be laid at the feet of the cast or the screenplay, but on the direction. Director Phyllida Lloyd does not seem to know how to film production numbers for maximum impact or stages them in such a completely inappropriate way as to diminish them. As a result, numbers that worked incredibly well on stage are re-staged here amateurishly. Several times, Lloyd actually interrupts numbers that have real potential to cut away to dialog scenes and then never returns to the music. This happens several times. Other numbers are clumsily rendered to try to get a laugh which takes the winds out of the sails of the performers. Julie Walters' version of Take a Chance of Me is constantly upstaged by crummy attempts at physical comedy which prevent the actress from really belting it out of the park, which anyone who has heard her on the soundtrack knows she could do. Similarly, Does Your Mother Know was a show-stopper on stage and would seem a perfect fit for Christine Baranski, but the filming and choreography of the number in the film comes across like ball bearings in a garbage disposal, leaving the viewer to wonder at its end, "Is that it?"
This is not to suggest that the film does not have its moments or some charm. Streep is surprisingly appealing and amusing despite a pleasant, but limited vocal range. Walters and Baranski are amusing as her friends, although they are never given the opportunities of their stage counterparts to really showcase their vocal and comic chops. One respects the efforts of the film to beef up the male roles to some extent, but this has limited success. Stellan Skarsgaard is fine, but the comedic aspects appear to have been drained from what was a very funny role on the stage. I like Pierce Brosnan in most everything, but when he opens his mouth to sing, some unholy combination of Joe Cocker and Winston Churchill bursts forth that makes one want to drive spikes into their ears. The relief that they have spared us his mutilating Knowing Me, Knowing You, is short-lived when we then must endure a tortuous new addition for him at the end. Of the three male leads, Colin Firth comes across as the most charming and appealing and reveals a sweet singing voice. I do have a problem with the film's treatment of his character, though. In the play, it is not unexpectedly revealed that Harry is gay and has a long-time partner back in England. Here, while I have no problem with the film pairing Harry up with a hot younger guy in Greece to keep him close to his newfound "family", the ludicrous build-up that heretofore this guy in his late 40s had "no idea" that he was gay until exchanging some barely noticeable glances with a male bartender feeds into a lot of misguided myths about homosexuality being a choice. Seyfried is a revelation as the daughter and she is nicely matched by the hot, underused Cooper as her paramour – who sadly does his one production number in bathing trunks and not a form-fitting Speedo like his stage counterpart.
In the end, the film is pleasant, easy on the eyes, and a relatively painless 90 minutes, but never comes close to capturing the lightning-in-a-bottle, unapologetically cheesy charisma of the mega-hit Broadway show.