Wrong director, and the cast? Not so sure

Rating: 5/10 (12 February 2009)

Meryl Streep as always is a consummate actress. She pulls off a strong performance. Most of the main cast, also good, however there are problems with the cast, problems with the choreography and definitely problems with the director. It needed someone with a real motion picture vision, who can take a mediocre script and plot, with songs most everyone knows, and really make it work. It just didn't do it for me. Camera angles were disturbing, the constant thump thump throb of music with same type of dancing was boring and Meryl is asked to jump up and down all over the place, which works on stage, but the film limits everyone.
Too bad! I was hoping for something stronger. I saw the show and enjoyed it. Let's face it, the show is an international phenomenon, which one cannot explain, except for the obvious, ABBA is so very popular. And the music is interjected in the right places. The film doesn't work as well as the stage performance. You can of course just sit back and enjoy the music if you want, even if the arrangements are a bit dull.
Meryl S has a lovely voice - and has been professionally trained. It shows! Too bad she didn't do more musicals when she was younger.
I am sure many will enjoy the film. The big problem as mentioned before, the director is poor and she had no control over the motion picture. Too bad!