Mamma Mia! **** (2008, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters) – Classic Movie Review 532

Director Phyllida Lloyd turns in an infectiously exuberant movie of the fABBAlous British stage musical in 2008. Anyone simply wondering what all the fuss is about or who cares little for the music of ABBA doesn’t need to approach with caution: this colourful, toe-tapping film’s a sensational showstopper.

As camp as rows and rows of tents, Mamma Mia! is several hoots and a half and then some! Singing and dancing like a woman possessed, Meryl Streep kicks up a storm as the said mamma Donna, an old hippy from the Seventies, now running a hotel on a Greek island, whose darling daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is getting married to English boy Sky (Dominic Cooper).

It seems that mamma used to get around in her heyday as a rock chick. So, before the wedding, the girl needs to know who her dad is – and she invites all three of mum’s old lovers (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård) to the nuptials to find out! Mamma was once the lead singer of Donna and the Dynamos, so she’s invited her backup singers, Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski).

Those wonderfully infectious ABBA hits keep coming thick and fast – Streep’s rendition of The Winner Takes It All is a joy – in this ABBAsolutely fabulous film of the stage hit that, after 10 years still had ‘sold out’ notices in London’s West End.

The three blokes are game for anything and nothing short of hilarious, while Waters and Baranski are hysterical as Mamma’s old bosom buddies. So you feel sorry for rising young stars Seyfried and Cooper because they hardly get a look in. Above all, it’s great seeing Streep letting her hair down like this.

Voulez-vous take a chance on this one? Ah-ha!

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 532

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