Pales in comparison to the stage production

Rating: 6/10 (7 August 2008)

I have seen Mama Mia twice on stage, and it is one of my favorite musicals, so I could barely wait to get to the theater to see it as a full feature film. Unfortunately, the movie was quite disappointing to say the least. I felt the casting of the characters was weak and poorly represented the characters as originally written. Donna was always portrayed as spunky and attractive though overworked and exhausted, and Meryl Streep just didn't have that "umph" to her. Pierce Brosnan had the look of Sam, but his singing was terrible. When adapting a musical to the big screen, quality of singing voice should be given more consideration. There are so many amazing actors with phenomenal voices, I can't understand why they didn't cast a little more carefully. There were also songs from the stage production that were not included in the movie including my favorite, "Thank you for the Music". I kept waiting for it to be thrown in somewhere along the way, but it was not included at all. While I wouldn't say the movie was terrible, I think if you have seen it live on stage, prepare to be disappointed.