Movie Review: Mamma Mia!

    

Mamma Mia!
2008, 108mins, PG
Director: Phyllidia Lloyd
Writer: Catherine Johnson
Cast includes: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper
Release Date: 10th July 2008

Mamma Mia! was always going to be a big hit but just how big a success the film ploughed on to be in 2008 was a shock even to the biggest optimist. Falling inside the years worldwide top 10 grossing films and topping the yearly UK chart wouldn’t have seemed a viable outcome back in early July but now 6 months later that is exactly the way this lucrative cookie crumbled. Fans of Abba and the stage show from which the picture is derived where bound to love it as where women of a certain age but what has shocking is how much further the films appeal expanded beyond those demographics, more so because essentially it’s not very good.
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is about to be married to the man of her dreams but the one thing she wants is to have her father there on the big day. Having been raised all her life by her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) Sophie has used her mum’s diary to narrow her father down to three prospective figures- all of whom she invites to the small Greek Island where her and Donna run a small hotel. There is Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth) all rather different but in a strange sort of fashion all rather perfect for her mother, and so Sophie goes about trying to hide them and deduce who her likely father is. However the trio don’t stay hidden for long and Donna is left with three past loves on her hands the day before her daughter’s big wedding, unaware that the crew where invited by the daughter she in turn desperately tries to shield from them.
The energy onscreen in Mamma Mia! is pretty epic, the one clear cut thing the feature does to right is translate the fizz of the story and for true Abba fans that might be enough to make the movie a paletable prospect but for the rest once you’ve adjusted to the bobby undercurrent very little else is offered. The performances are either really laid back or just really lazy, Streep rises to the occasion and Walters is a laugh to behold but everyone else is dull or fatally flat. None of the male trio cook up a chemistry with Streep and as the young lovers I found Seyfried and Cooper uninteresting and at times annoying. The interpretations of Abbas song onscreen are usually worth a giggle, Streep tries hard and fares best whilst Seyfried shows a similar decent vocal ability but everyone else murders what was already a dubious collection of pop ballads. The funniest has to be Brosnans version of “SOS” but not every bad piece of singing is quite so amusing, the tiresome “Dancing Queen” is drawn out to unbearable length and shot in the most punishing fashion whilst the rest of the soundtrack flips invariably from hysterically awful to just plain terrible.
The story is basic and only sporadically engaging, the outcome all to predictable and unexciting for my feelings toward this sugar coated confection to ever raise above tepid. Secondly several characters serve so little purpose it’s hard to stomach, the chief offender Dominic Cooper as Sophie’s soon to be husband and Christine Baranski as Donna’s slightly snobby and slutty friend. Cooper does have some importance within the stories structure but overall neither of this pair transform into fully fledged or needed screen identities.
The locations in Mamma Mia! are really awe inspiring, the film itself isn’t well directed and interior sets are uninspired but the great outdoors looks superb in this movie. This is easily one of the movies more redeeming features and I have to say that just looking at these sunbaked landscapes made the experience of viewing Mamma Mia! more bearable. As I suggested before the picture is easy going and manages a few effective moments of comedy (though not always 100% intentional) so is hard to hate, but enthusiastic cast members will only take you so far and the musical number grated with me. The direction is barely passable, Lloyd looks to have conducted a single practice take then shot the next attempt regardless of quality. The landscapes shoot themselves but beyond that the cinematography is lazy and the production design and edits really quite amateurish.
I still suspect the romantic hook and cheesy pop will be enough to satisfy the diehards but for everybody else it’s hard to sit back and take this as quality or hype worthy cinema. As musicals goe the actual singing is erratic and the dance numbers ill prepared whilst visually beyond it’s Greek setting the picture is as flat and dead as a pancake. It’s not a completely terrible experience, but unless you’re an advocate of the stage show, love ABBA or age at least 40 I’d recommend you skip it by.