Mamma Mia!

Movie: MAMMA MIA!

Review by Kevin Xalvis (xalviss)

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgård

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

The story is a piece of fluff. Sophie, who lives with her mother in a dilapidated hotel on an idyllic Greek island, wants nothing more than for her father to be at her forthcoming wedding. The trouble is her father could be any one of three men with whom her mother dot dot dotted twenty years ago. So Sophie invites all three of them to her wedding and, as expected, complications ensue. The story, such as it is, is quite strong enough to enable the songs to be hooked onto it. And the songs, with one or two obvious exceptions (Money Money Money cued by the rundown state of the hotel) are very cannily worked into the story so that each one is relevant.

The film looks great. The Greek locations overflow with sun and primary colors. The script is mostly fairly deft, and there is a sprinkling of decent laughs.

While the majority of the film is brilliantly silly, Meryl Streep gives us an emotional show stopping performance of 'The Winner Takes It All. Who wouldn't pay to see James Bond singing 'SOS'? Pierce Brosnan was humorously over-emoting everything but it worked perfectly within the context of the film.

But the film ultimately stands or falls - and it stands, believe me! - on two things: the music, and the cast.

The music - sitting through this film brings home the strength of the Abba catalogue. There isn't a weak song among the two dozen which feature on the soundtrack. The music, produced by composer Benny Andersson, mostly wisely sticks very close to the original arrangements, and the occasional divergences (Greek bouzouki on I Had A Dream, for instance) are spot on.

Donna and Sophie (Mother and Daughter) are perfectly cast with an uncanny similarity in both looks and personality. Julie Walters almost steals the whole show, sorry I mean film, with her performance of 'Take a Chance on Me'.

It does take you about 20 minutes to settle down from the excitement of this outstanding cast singing their hearts out. I'm not the biggest 'movical' fan but if go in with an open mind and a bunch of people and you'll leave uplifted and pleasantly surprised.

With just the right amount of eccentricity, heart, and *get out of those movie chairs and DANCE IN THE AISLE* ABBA music, you'll never want this adventure to end.