Review: Mamma Mia!

Amanda Seyfried, who lives on a Greek island (as you do) with mum Meryl Streep, is about to marry Dominic Cooper. But weighing on her mind is the father she has never met, mum having told her she was the result of a brief fling twenty years ago. When Seyfried finds her mother’s diary she reads that she was intimate with three men in one summer (!), and Seyfried decides to contact each of them, hoping they will arrive for the wedding so her dad can give her away. The three men are; uptight British banker Colin Firth, recently divorced architect Pierce Brosnan, and free-spirited travel writer and boat owner Stellan Skarsgaard (So her dad’s either James Bond/Remington Steele, Mr. Darcy, or Barnacle Bill? What’s the name of that Meatloaf song again?). Also turning up for the wedding are Streep’s old gal pals Christine Baranski (a man-eater) and Julie Walters. Look for ABBA piano man Benny Andersson during the ‘Dancing Queen’ musical number.

 

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I watched this 2008 Phyllida Lloyd (her debut in feature films) film version of the stage play (which she also directed, with music and lyrics by ABBA members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus) of the same name. I am an unashamed ABBA fan (Disco-era pop music yes, but impeccably well-done for the most part), but hate musicals, have a complicated relationship with Meryl Streep, and hate Julie Walters with almost as much passion as I hate musicals. The result? I had an infectiously joyous, happy feeling throughout this film, but let’s just say it’s a jolly good thing that the songs are mostly great. I ain’t wantin’ to see Culture Club: The Musical anytime soon, let alone the movie.

 

Actually, things didn’t start out too happily for me- the opening song ‘I Have a Dream’ is, despite Seyfried’s best vocal efforts, not one of ABBA’s more memorable songs, and the forced giggly performances of Seyfried’s gal pals nearly had me using the remote control. But then, the bubbly and infectious ‘Honey Honey’ (I didn’t even know it was an ABBA song! And good luck trying to get it or ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’ out of your head afterwards!) brought things back on track pretty quickly, and it rarely derailed after that (with one big exception whom I will talk about in a minute). Seyfried is a revelation here, both a genuine singing talent but more importantly, it’s an immensely appealing, sunny, star-making performance impossible to dislike, even if you do hate ABBA (and I feel sorry for you if you do hate ABBA, it’s your loss). Streep, whom I really am starting to warm to (after many years), is clearly having the time of her life (no pun intended), and puts her all into not only the singing (which she is quite impressive at) and the acting (despite the lightweight material, the actress doesn’t condescend to it). I could gripe that she overdoes it in the acting department during her rendition of ABBA’s haunting ballad ‘The Winner Takes it All’ (and no one is as affecting singing that song as Agnetha, it has to be said!), but the fact that she even tackles that song and sings it so well (admittedly the arrangement is altered slightly to better suit her) makes it easy to forgive her, and I’m just nit-picking (the song doesn’t entirely fit in the scene either, lyrically, it has to be said!) because it’s one of my three favourite ABBA songs (along with ‘Mamma Mia’- performed more than once in the film, and the song I probably shouldn’t love but do ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A Man After Midnight’, which is heard in both instrumental form and the whole song itself). In the end, it’s Meryl Streep in a film you wouldn’t expect to see her in, singing, and singing ABBA, no less. And she does it well. Good on her, I say, the Oscar-baiting roles could wait while Meryl lets her hair down for a bit.

 

But after Seyfried and Streep, things get a little awkward in the singing department. Baranski, one of the most limited of acting talents (i.e. She’s still playing her “Cybill” character here, 15 years later!), at the very least is playing a character within her range, and her big song ‘Does Your Mother Know’ (one of the songs Bjorn had lead vocals on, and the only one that doesn’t suck!) is perfect material for her character and persona. Firth and Skarsgaard (both well-suited to their roles as well) aren’t singers, and it’s obvious, but thankfully most of their screen time is in the non-singing department. Walters, usually the bane of my existence, shows off very rough singing on a few songs, ‘Chiquitita’ being the worst (and it is ABBA’s worst song), but her duet with Skarsgaard ‘Take a Chance on Me’ isn’t far behind. Worse, though is her bizarre performance and butch physical appearance (Remember Julia Sweeney’s androgynous Pat on “SNL”? Walters might be playing Pat’s Dad here). Very peculiar indeed, but thankfully she’s mostly on the sidelines. Nope, the most egregious, most abhorrently offensive performance on display here is that of former 007 Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan does well in the acting department, being his usual charming, charismatic self. But then he opens his mouth to sing...The horror! The horror! The result is a total embarrassment, and all I can think is that Brosnan didn’t realise this was for real (‘An ABBA musical? Sure, might be campy fun!’ He perhaps thought), otherwise he surely wouldn’t allow himself to kill absolutely every ounce of credibility as a sexy leading man he has ever had. His disastrous, cat-mutilating, vocal stylings completely ruin one of ABBA’s best songs, ‘SOS’, which not even Meryl (who also sings on the song) can save. I bet the theatres were full of women everywhere dying a little bit inside during that moment. Sadly, his pissweak attempts at singing can be heard on several of the film’s other songs, but thankfully in smaller doses. But...wow, he’s terrible.

 

If you can forgive some of the supporting cast, and Brosnan’s abominable singing, this is a sunny, enjoyable film with nice scenery, some good acting and singing by Seyfried and Streep, and some of the best disco-pop songs ever written. And that last point is key. Elvis’ movies might’ve been mostly awful, but they still featured Elvis’ songs, and they were some of the all-time great songs. ABBA, like ‘em or not, have to be respected for being the best in their chosen genre of music. For this reason if for no other, it’s a musical that even I liked, because the songs were unbeatable. Except fucking ‘Chiquitita’. That one blows even when ABBA sing it.

 

Hate me if you want, but I was bopping along to this just about the whole way through and have no problem recommending it to either musical fans or ABBA fans. The screenplay is by Catherine Johnson (who worked on the stage musical also).

 

Rating: B-