Mamma Mia What a Mess!

Rating: 2/10 (22 June 2008)

I saw this at a screening this week, and since I had never seen the stage play it is based on, I went in with an open mind. How could it be bad, the ABBA music is great. From the first song, I knew that this was going to be a disaster. Not only could the actress playing the daughter not carry a tune in a bucket, the visuals were just plain ugly. It looked grainy and out of focus. The acting was uniformly bad and not one of the actors or actresses could sing a lick either. Oddly, it seemed like they were singing with the actual ABBA soundtrack in the background. The dance numbers looked like they came straight a badly produced high school play. There was absolutely no polish to any of the proceedings.
Being a huge fan of both Streep and Brosnan, I was stunned how amateurish they came off. Also, they were way too old to play their parts since Streep's character presumably had her child when she was in her wild early twenties and her daughter was now twenty. Streep, at best, looks like she is in her early to mid-fifties. Brosnan, flabby and out of shape looks even older. The supporting players including Colin Firth and Julie Walters were just embarrassing. If you can't sing or dance, maybe, a musical is not the best place to pick up a paycheck.
There were a few cute moments, but unfortunately, I had to watch a lot of trash to get to them. I wasn't alone in my feelings, though I stayed to the very painful end, I have never seen so many people walk out of a free movie screening. I was surprised to learn that Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson produced this. They usually produce good movies like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "That Thing You Do". My guess is that they lost a bet.
Life is short, don't waste your time or money on this awful film. If you like ABBA's music, buy their greatest hits CD instead.