Mamma Mia! The Movie

I saw 'Mamma Mia!', the stage show, in Toronto a few years ago as a post-Birthday treat after seeing Buffy Sainte-Marie in concert, and loved it. In part it's those great ABBA songs, but the story actually works with the songs and it's a very 'up' type of show. So, naturally, I had to see the film.

The story is, of course, the same, but it's the non-singing, non-dancing star cast that make this a bit more interesting than the norm. Can Meryl Streep dance? Can Pierce Brosnan sing? How gay is Colin Firth? Is Julie Walters a classically trained dancer? Does Christine Baranski play another sloshed vamp? The answer to all the above is ...

It was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It's clearly targeted at a girlie audience (made obvious by the selection of trailers before the film started) but I think most people who can suspend their disbelief for a couple of hours and like ABBA would probably enjoy it.

Meryl Streep was, of course, excellent, has a good voice and threw herself into the part as you'd expect. Pierce's singing voice made me wince a couple of times but he wasn't bad. And it was nice to see Colin Firth fight off his Mr Darcy image at last by getting his shirt off and dance with his boyfriend. Christine was excellent in her big number on the beach playing the worldly wise older woman singing 'Does Your Mother Know?' to her would-be lover who is half her age and she floors all the young lads on the beach. There's a nice generational thing going on in the show, with the old 'uns having fun as well as the youngsters.

Every now and then the inconsistencies came to the fore. Like, in the flashbacks to Donna as a young woman with three boyfriends, one is flower power and one is a punk and I can't help thinking there's 10 years between those eras, yet there's talk of the internet at one point and Donna's daughter is 20... the timeline doesn't work but does it matter? Not really, but it stands out more in the film than in the stage show. There are other bits that niggled or didn't quite work, but, actually, I don't care - it's no-nonsense fun and doesn't try to be anything else.

It was nice seeing all the sunshine and natural tans in contrast to this rubbish summer we've had so far, the great outdoors and splashing in the surf looks so temping. The cypress groves, the seascapes, the minimal clothing, the sun sparkling on the sea, all of it makes me want a holiday.

Just like in the stage show, the end is an encore of the three leading ladies dressed in full 'glam rock' regalia singing 'Dancing Queen' and finishing with 'Waterloo' with ... ah, but that would be telling! If you've seen the stage show you'll know what to expect, but I'd totally forgotten the ending so it was a nice surprise. The audience clapped at the end!

I enjoyed it! The subject matter was sometimes a bit close to the knuckle for me at the moment, the story of a girl with three potential dads, but it was fun nonetheless. Go and see it for a fun time with great tunes and some good laughs.


It looked like Benny and Bjorn has small cameo roles, but where were Agnetha and Frida? Now, the lads might've written the songs, but it was the lasses that brought them to life and who I hear and see in my mind whenever I hear an ABBA song.