All her life, 20-year-old Sophie has lived with her single mom, Donna, in their little hotel on an idyllic Greek island. For most of that time, though, she's secretly longed to find the father she's never known. A man that her former hippie mom refuses to talk about.
 When Sophie happens upon Mom's diary, she finds clues that point to three lovers from her free-spirit past. So, since Sophie is about to be married, she invites all three men to her wedding—feeling that surely she'll know the one the moment she lays eyes on him.
Donna has also invited a couple of people to the festivities—her two lifelong friends and former bandmates Tanya and Rosie. They arrive with drinks in hand ready to recapture some of their wild and crazy past as Donna and the Dynamos. But you can think of them as just color. Because the remainder of the movie revolves around Sophie trying to decide which of the potential dads will walk her down the aisle and Donna plotting how to goosestep them out the back door.
Old romance is rekindled, nuptials fast approach and chaotic, musical mayhem ensues. Mamma Mia! What a wedding!
:: Review
Inspired and enhanced by a passel of bouncy ABBA tunes, Mamma Mia! played as a stage musical in more than 160 cities, motivating over 30 million people to sing along with old favorites and, in some cases, even dance in the aisles.
One thing I noticed with the live production, though, that's even more true with the big-screen version is that you can't really think too hard about what the show is saying and still enjoy it. There are way too many problems for that. Mamma wants you to simply sway along with the frothy fun and marvel at how the nostalgic and infectious music is cleverly stitched into the emotional drama.
Helping you down that path, director Phyllida Lloyd, who also helmed the stage version, does a good job translating her creation to celluloid—buoying the tale with a broad musical theater feel, chipper choreography and lots of Greek chorus backups to flesh out the sound. Amanda Seyfried (as Sophie) is the film's shining star, practically glowing in the early going as she seeks out her dad. Even Meryl Streep (playing Donna) is surprisingly good at giving her songs all the physical and vocal pizzazz that you'd expect from a Broadway lead.
Here's where we get back to that thinking part, though. What starts as a young girl's longing for a family she's never known, ends up being a jaded lecture on how conventional families, wisdom and morality are all just downright silly and antiquated concepts.
Older women need not mature and learn from their mistakes, just party-hearty and strut your stuff, Mamma Mia! maintains. Poor moral choices don't really have consequences. That's your mother talking. It all works out in the end. Whatever your particular sexual bent or gut-centered desire, go for it. If you wanna shack up and sail away instead of saying "I do" and "I will," well, just do it. We'll all strip off our shirts, sing and dance, follow our hearts and it'll be A-OK.
You might not notice or care about the implications of that kind of worldview while in a "Dancing Queen" trance. But you will the second you stop and think about it.
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» 1 Comment
1"Fantastic"
at Monday, 17 November 2008 15:05
U would think the wedo was for the daughter instead the mother and his father had never wed, just hated the gay part of love for one of the dad wana be it was euuuuuuuuuuuu.All in all the movie was cool it would have been so boring without the songs in between
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