Review: Mamma Mia!

Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Writer: Catherine Johnson
Producers: Judy Craymer, Gary Goetzman
Starring: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 108 min

I was on a mission for entertainment. I had planned on doing the good thing and seeing Gonzo: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson but it started a bit late. I know now that I really just wanted an excuse to see it. After the skitzo dance and song filled review and an email from a girl friend praising it, I took myself to the local theater and amidst the repeat viewing fans of The Dark Knight (our review), of which there were many, I purchased my ticket to Mamma Mia!. I started to imagine myself in an empty/nearly empty cinema. The joy! I can sing along!

I was following a young couple into the theater (drats!), far enough behind to spot them coming in the door and standing at the tier of seats and looking on. A flash: this only happens when the theater is full; it’s the planning stage before attack. Just how full is this place? I turned the corner and took a look for myself. Thirty minutes before the scheduled movie start and the screening room was nearly full. And these didn’t look like cast offs from The Dark Knight either. Groups of women (young and old), couples (young and old), and a few lone males (I know) – all separated by empty seats. Counter programming at work.

I strategically chose a seat near the back, away from prying eyes and keen ears. I didn’t want anyone to notice if I started to dance in my seat and quietly mouth words to ABBA classics. The lights go down, the music kicks in and almost immediately you’re sucked in. Shot on location in Greece, I give first time director Phyllida Lloyd credit for making use of the gorgeous locale. From the opening shot, you know this isn’t going to be the musical and that has both positive and negative connotations. On the one hand, we’ll get to enjoy the gorgeous scenery but on the negative, unless these actors are secret singing sensations or (god forbid) dubbed over, the music is going to be a teensy bit painful. What I hadn’t counted on was the sheer power of ABBA’s music taking over and bypassing any faults, trust me - there are many, in the singing voices.

The story is clearly a very loose framework to string together a whole load of ABBA tunes. It’s as though someone sat around with “ABBA Gold” and plugged in the wholes between songs with cheesy dialog. The result is a film with very little talking; the majority of the story is told though the lyrics of the music and it works much better than I could have anticipated.

I won’t pretend to know what these actors where thinking when they signed contracts but I have to assume that they did it for fun – especially since they all knew their vocal limitations going in. Amanda Seyfried is easily the best of the bunch. The young “Big Love” star belts the tunes like she was born to be in musicals and though she’s no young Julie Andrews, her voice suits the material just fine. One gets the sense that at this point in her career, Meryl Streep is simply looking to have a good time with her roles and if it happens to be singing at the top of her lungs, so be it. She looks fantastic and though her singing voice isn’t the best, she’s not shy to make use of it. Christine Baranski and Julie Walters are hysterical as Streep’s best friends but the real icing on the cake here are the men. Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan are astonishingly bad. We’re talking so bad it’s crossed the line into good again. When Brosnan begins to sing, and he does a lot of solo singing here, it’s enough to break glass. Oh yes, it’s bad but don’t kid yourself, the other two are no better. Yet somehow, among the breaking yelps, I started to feel a little pull at the heart strings. Here are three men, each one a worse singer than the next, and they’re singing like their lives might end tomorrow. Ohhhhh. How hopelessly romantic! A small thank you to whoever had the good sense to spare our eardrums. The boys didn’t have too much time to sing on their own instead, they were often joined by a chorus obviously made up of people with some vocal talent.

I could go on but there’s no point. Technically speaking, there’s very little of Mamma Mia!, aside from the gorgeous cinematography, worth praising but the experience is infectious. The music and charm overtake any of the film’s shortcomings. I doubt anyone who had no interest in the film to begin with could be persuaded to see it but for those that are even mildly curious, it’s well worth the trip. I’m still trying to get over the fact that they turned my Mr. Darcy into a gay man (gasp!) but I simply had too much fun to write this off as a pass. In fact, I had such a good time that I’ve already made plans to take my mom to see it next week.

If you’re on the fence, just buy you’re ticket and go. Be sure to stick around at the end of the credits for one of the most gloriously entertaining two minutes of film, I’m talking priceless, and if at all possible, find the local theater encouraging a sing along.

Links:
IMDb profile
Official Site
Flixster Profile for Mamma Mia!