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5/8/2008
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Mamma Mia! (2008)
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Twenty-year-old Sophie is getting married on the beautiful Greek island where she was raised by her mother Donna. Her closest friends are coming, the groom is handsome, the weather is perfect and the surroundings romantic, but for Sophie, one vital thing is missing: her father. She desperately wants her father to give her away on her big day, but has no idea who he is. By searching through her mother’s old diary Sophie comes up with three possible dads and invites them all to the island on the basis that she’ll know which one it is as soon as she sees him.
Of course, comedy (if you can call it that) ensues, as Sophie has to hide her true intentions in bringing Sam, Harry and Bill to her wedding, as well as hiding them from Donna, who has no idea of Sophie’s longing to meet her dad. The first thirty minutes of the film are fairly tedious; the younger girls are too giggly and high-pitched while the older ones (Donna and her two friends Tanya and Rosie) are overly loud and raucous. The turning point comes with the Dancing Queen number, a joyous sing-along moment during which pretty much every female on the island joins in until Meryl Streep is leading a stream of dancing, singing, skipping women around after her. It’s so over the top, so gloriously upbeat, that you can’t help but be swept up in everyone’s enthusiasm.
The same goes for the performances, because after a while you realise that in a film this silly, the actors have to make everything a little larger than life to make any impact. Meryl Streep takes the fluffy material a bit too seriously, but her, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski make a good trio, their initial one-note rowdiness evolving into a much warmer, funnier and realistic friendship. Playing the three possible fathers, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård look a bit out of their element compared to the girls, but they gamely surrender themselves to the flimsy set-up and occasionally clunky dialogue, and they have a good stab at the songs. It’s a good job that the supporting actors are so endearing because the ostensible leads – Sophie and her fiancé Sky – veer between irritating and dull. Amanda Seyfried’s acting is not as good as her singing, both characters are thinly sketched and the film suffers whenever they are the focus of a scene.
Overall though, Mamma Mia! is an enjoyable film that doesn’t take itself seriously. The musical numbers are generally well-performed and choreographed, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll be singing Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia to yourself for about a week after seeing the movie. The ending is ridiculous, but then much of what has gone before is ridiculous and by that point you really don’t mind anymore. It really feels like the actors enjoyed making the film (the credit sequence alone is almost worth the price of admission) and their enthusiasm transfers to the audience. After a shaky start, it’s almost impossible not to be carried away with the songs, the dancing and the vanity-free performances. Mamma Mia! is unashamedly feel-good, although not the kind of film that demands to be seen in the cinema. Wait for the DVD, get your friends round, and prepare for the girliest night of your lives.
Review by Catherine Leopold
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