With stars like Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan and a background as one of the best contemporary musicals on the stage, Mamma Mia! should have been a summer move hit however, it ended up anything but.
Ho-Hum Plot
The film centers on Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried, Mean Girls) who is preparing for her marriage to Sky (Dominic Cooper). Though she hasn't known her biological father her entire life, she decides that she wants her father to walk her down the aisle and giver her away to Sky. After learning that she may have three possible fathers and that her mother was not exactly the town virgin, she invites all three potential men to Greece a few days before the wedding. She invites Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgård), Sam Carmichael (Brosnan) and Harry Bright (Colin Firth) to Greece, each of them unknowing of their true purpose of being there. As predicted, complications ensue as does a corny ending.
What Choreography?!
Mamma Mia!'s most distracting and annoying flaw is the awful choreography. The moves seem haphazard and do not mesh well with certain songs. Most of the actors seem obtuse in their movements and watching them dart across the screen to “Lay All Your Love On Me” gives the viewer a headache and is just not aesthetically pleasing.
Meryl Magic
Streep stars as Donna Sheridan, concerned but freewheeling mother to Sophie. Though Mamma Mia! is an overall dud of film, Streep cannot help but light up the screen as the main character's mother and effectively steal the spotlight. Streep essentially dominated the movie in terms of acting. While other stars such as Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgård were expected to deliver some great performances, all three actors stopped in the middle-of-the-road and could not really pull themselves into making decent performances. Additionally, it is of note that though Brosnan made a solid effort to perfect his singing voice for the film, there is a certain natural component that he does not have; his voice comes off scratchy and not ear-friendly.
ABBA Is Hard to Hate, For Most
Chances are, Mamma Mia! viewers are fans of Swedish pop group ABBA. Listening to “Dancing Queen,” “I Have A Dream,” and “S.O.S” were perhaps the only perks to watching this far-too-long musical letdown. Those who enjoy Mamma Mia! are perhaps ABBA fans, fans of the far-superior on-stage production, or casual fans of Streep, Brosnan; otherwise be sure to skip it.
