I picked today’s image, Dreambow for two reasons: first, because the image is pretty, dance-like and just plain FUN. If you want to know the second reason you’ll have to go see the movie I’m reviewing--then you’ll probably figure out the connection.-
I have often (half-jokingly) said there are three kinds of people in the world--the people who love ABBA music, the people who love ABBA song but would never admit it and the people who simply haven’t heard ABBA. Hating the Swedish super-group is popular yet somehow they are one of the top-selling music acts of all time. (At their peak ABBA had a bigger income than Volvo--the largest company in Sweden.) Mama Mia was created from the ABBA catalog: it wasn’t the first “jukebox musical" but it was certainly the best and most financially successful. It has estimated that over thirty million people have seen Mama Mia since it debuted on Broadway in 1999 and it is still going strong with long-running venues in New York, London and Las Vegas--not to mention multiple ongoing international tours. Now Mama Mia has made the leap to the big screen (courtesy of Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson) with decidedly mixed results.
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Like most musicals, the plot of Mama Mia doesn’t require much though--and won’t hold together if you DO chance to think about it. Still, for those who want a bit of a synopsis here goes… 20 year old Sophia (nicely played by Amanda Seyfried of Mean Girls fame) has grown up never knowing her father. On the eve or her wedding she finds her mother’s diary and learns there are three possibilities, Bill Anderson (Stellen Skarsgaard). Harry Bright (Colin Firth) or Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan). Sophia gets the bright idea to invite all three to the ceremony so she can finally learn the truth and, as it only happens in musicals, all three show up! Sophia isn’t the only one who has invited guests: her mother Donna (played by Meryl Streep) has invited her band-mates Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters) for a reunion. Complications ensue because Donna has no idea that Sophia has invited the three men but it all wraps up in a nice neat bow with a wedding in the little chapel at the top of the hill.
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A movie musical rises or falls on the strength of its cast and director. First timer Phyllida Lloyd (who helped create the show for the stage) makes a few mistakes along the way but the pretty scenery and fast pace keeps them from becoming glaringly obvious. Meryl Streep can make the most manic, and emotionally schizoid role believable--and she has pretty good pipes. Amanda Seyfried isn’t given much to work with as the ingénue but she has a voice as as pretty her looks and can dance. Most of the rest of the cast are adequate singers with the exception of Stellen Skarsgaard and Pierce Brosnan--but at least Skarsgaard isn’t called do do that much. Brosnan on the other hand…
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Make no mistake, I actually LIKE Pierce Brosnan: he was wonderful as the title character in Remmington Steele and showed a flare for Action/Adventure roles when he played James Bond. He even played comedy in Mrs. Doubtfire (although he was the straight man for Robin Williams.) In this role though he’s dead weight. His leaden presence sucks all the life and energy out of the movie every time he’s on screen. He can carry a tune but what he does can hardly be called singing. His dance moves are as wooden as his expression which always seems to say “that gurgling you hear in the soundtrack isn’t ocean waves--it’s my career going down the toilet.” If he doesn’t get a “Razzie” for this role there’s no justice! At least he looks great on screen.
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Brosnan’s performance isn’t the only fault with the show. Like so many others transitions from stage to screen the movie loses several songs along the way and I think the movie was weaker for it. Still, like it’s staged counterpart, this Mama Mia is an enjoyable bit of fluff for fans of musicals. We saw it in a theater that was nearly full and a good time was had by all. (Even though it opened against The Dark Knight, Mama Mia still managed to pull in record box office receipts for a musical. Fans of the genre should check it out (so Hollywood will continue making movie musicals.)
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FINAL GRADE: B-
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