Mamma Mia! (2008)

Yeah, yeah, don't judge me too harshly, please. I got this movie for my mother for Christmas, not anticipating that she would later ask me to watch it with her. I'd seen the play, I knew what was in store, but I do like Colin Firth... Set on a fictional Greek island, the plot (a term used loosely here) concerns 20-year-old (Amanda Seyfried), a sweet girl who has never met her father and is getting married the next day. Her fiance Sky (Dominic Cooper) is perpetually shirtless and wants to travel. I don't think he had any other personality traits. Her mother Donna (Meryl Streep), who was some sort of freewheeling sexpot in her youth, independently runs a crumbling hotel, unconsciously pressuring her daughter to stay home and help her run it despite her secret desire to be an artist. Unbeknownst to her mother, Sophie has invited three men to the wedding, all of whom dated Donna around the time she was conceived. It is her dream to have her father walk her down the aisle, and she believes she'll instantly recognize him when she meets him. The arrivals of Sophie's bridesmaids (Ashley Lilley and Rachel McDowall) and Donna's best friends/former bandmates Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) prompt some songs to fill up the time.

Thinking they were invited because Donna sought a renewal of friendship, the three possible dads arrive and spend some time with Sophie, who tells them Donna totally wants to hang out with them but not until she's done with pre-wedding stuff. She leaves out the possible-dad thing. Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgard) is a Swedish adventurer/writer, and was a hippie-type in his youth. Harry Bright (Colin Firth) is a British banker and former hard rocker. Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan) is an American businessman and architect who dated Donna while he was engaged, and then left her to marry his fiancee. Now Sophie is trying to figure out which one is her real dad, Donna is trying to avoid confrontation with her old flames, and everyone is singing a whole lot. Is Donna still in love with one of them? Is one of them Sophie's father? Will Sophie and Sky get in a fight over a practically nothing and jeopardize the wedding for no apparent reason? Will there be various under-developed and pointless side plots just so we can squeeze in some more songs? Egads!

Ok so I understand people aren't watching this for the plot, but that doesn't mean I'm not irked by the lack of a decent one. Without the music, this movie would be like 20 minutes, and most of the songs don't even help advance the story. I know they came first and this musical was developed as a showcase for the good ol' days of ABBA, but why can't we have something resembling a substantial narrative? Singin' in the Rain started off as a collection of songs too, but once they were handed over to Adolph Green and Betty Comden, they were used effectively to create one of the greatest musicals of all time, full of humor and romance and an interesting story. Here we just have a bunch of flat characters bumbling around an island and speaking in circles. Is it naive to expect more of a musical that makes it to Hollywood? Because if Mamma Mia is actually "the highest-grossing film of all time" in the UK and "the most successful Hollywood musical of all time" as Wikipedia and IMDb would have us believe, I'm a little worried about the future of the movie musical. It's already a dying artform, so maybe this kind of fluff is ultimately the only type that will survive? But Sweeney Todd did pretty well, right?

Admittedly, the musical numbers are fun for the most part and I like the songs (they are so freaking catchy, my god, I'm singing "Honey, Honey" right now just thinking about this movie). But it's cheaper and less time-consuming to just buy the soundtrack. Or watch some music videos. There isn't much choreography, and what there is mainly consists of jumping around gleefully and running in groups against gorgeous backdrops of Greece. It's enjoyable to watch at first but there's only so much of that I can take. It's not like a Busby Berkeley picture where the lack of a story was made up for by the splashy musical sequences. Performance-wise, Colin Firth was adorable and funny, and Christine Baranski was awesome as always, but everyone else was just sort of there. Meryl Streep did a good job singing and I guess she... acted? Amanda Seyfried was sort of annoying and didn't seem to have many levels of emotion. Since none of the characters were multi-layered I wouldn't expect more from any cast member. Generally it's a light-hearted romp through Greece with a multitude of indulgent ABBA musical numbers and something about a girl finding her father before she gets married. The end.

2/5