Entertaining But Lacking Depth

Rating: 6/10 (17 January 2010)

This movie was enjoyable to watch in terms of the entertainment value (singing, dancing, musical numbers) but I found myself wanting more throughout the experience. For much of the movie I held the impression that the songs were placed merely to utilize yet another ABBA song, and did nothing to move the plot along (e.g., Christine Baranski's number on the beach, a few of the male character's numbers, the group numbers with Meryl Streep and the other two women). For example, although I love the song "Dancing Queen" it seemed very contrived to have it performed by the three women in the hotel. Don't get me wrong - I liked the singing and the movie was quite visually appealing. Amanda Seyfried in particular was charismatic and had a beautiful voice. She was by far the musical star and I wished there were more numbers with her and not as many with the other characters. Meryl Streep did okay but she is ultimately not a singer and she was overshadowed by Christine Baranski and Julie Walters in the group numbers. One of her solo numbers "Winner Takes it All" was painful to listen to. She does not have a very strong voice on her own, especially not in the softer ballads. Pierce Brosnan's attempts were quite unimpressive and somewhat comical. It would have been better if they had selected more actors that could actually sing, rather than selecting them for their name and reputation. Even so, I did like most of the songs and found myself considering purchasing the soundtrack or at least trying to track down the original versions.
However, when I watch a movie, even a musical, I expect more than minimal scenes and character development to occur in between the numbers, such as what occurred in older musicals like "Singing in the Rain." Even a more modern tale like "Grease" is better-developed because all of the songs fit with the same theme and the same characters and work to advance the story. In "Mamma Mia" it was obvious to me that some of the songs were used just to be used but didn't necessarily fit. I don't know ABBA songs well enough to be able to tell you which ones these were, but it seemed like the script was loosely connected to incorporate much of ABBA'S repertoire, and many of the numbers were superfluous and didn't work with the storyline. I wanted to learn more about Sophie and Donna and didn't care as much about the peripheral characters, yet they performed many of the songs in the movie. I really wanted to see more of Amanda Seyfried, since she shined, but she wasn't on screen or singing enough for my taste.
As another note, there were parts of the movie that didn't make much sense to me, possibly because there was not enough plot development (as I mentioned earlier) or else too many scenes ended up on the cutting room floor to make room for the musical numbers. At the end of the movie, when Rosie (Julie Walters' character) sings to Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), I was confused. Where in the world did this come from? I'm sure she was infatuated by him but the fact that she would put herself out there like that seemed to come out of nowhere. In addition, when Sam (Pierce Brosnan) spontaneously proposes to Donna (Meryl Streep), I was once again caught off guard. I understand they had this deep passionate affair, but how are we to believe that he would have held a candle for her all these years? All we are told is that she was in love with him and he said he was in love with her, but he was engaged, and he left to get married, and broke her heart. The singing scenes between to two of them prior to this point didn't do enough for me to make this believable.
I realize that my opinion may differ from many others who watch this movie. I may be in the minority in that I had not seen the Broadway version and was not familiar with the songs and the story. Maybe I was harder to please because I didn't have a previous attachment to it. This movie may work better as a stage musical because you want everything to be fast-moving and entertaining and the actual story in between may not matter as much. When people go to see a Broadway Musical, they go for the music, and the story may be a distant second. But with films, they should still be movies along with musicals. This is my point of view. The movie musicals I most enjoy not only have great musical performances, but also have good acting, plot, and character development. That makes a well-rounded story. No, I don't expect every movie I watch to be Oscar caliber. I am perfectly content to be entertained by action movies or thrillers or comedies that may not emotionally touch you. However, in order to fully enjoy a movie and want to see it again, I find that I need to have some kind of connection with the characters and the story. In this case I am more likely to listen to the music than watch the film again, because, despite the major names and players, that's essentially what is was for me – great musical numbers with a little bit of film in between.