Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia! is the film adaptation of the popular West End jukebox musical based on the music of the Swedish group ABBA. Like other productions of its genre, the play and the movie have a loose plot cobbled together in a way to include as many songs as possible from the source artist. This sort of thing works better on stage than on screen, so the movie Mamma Mia! was a little strange. But it was undeniably fun. The cast looked like they had a marvelous time, even if virtually nothing made sense. It was strange to see serious actors like Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth sing and dance, but I think that was part of the attraction. It's funny to watch James Bond, Mr. Darcy, and a multiple-Oscar winner prance about like silly children. I give major credit to Meryl Streep, who has no dance groove but didn't hold back and made it look fun anyway. Worse was Pierce Brosnan, who really and truly can't sing to save his life. He belted it out anyway, though, in a raspy sort of way, so he gets points for effort at least. Fortunately, many of the other cast members sang pretty well, like Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried.

I think the movie itself was pretty forgettable, but it was still incredibly fun because of the music. This is really a compliment to ABBA, for having created such a trove of memorable songs. I am by no means a hardcore ABBA fan, but I recognized every song in the movie and (surprisingly) knew the lyrics to more than half of them. This exhuberant, sing-along aspect helped distract from the thin plot and ridiculous scenes. Mamma Mia! is empty and saccharine-sweet, but still probably worth a rental.
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