MAMMA MIA! The Movie

Universal Pictures
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B+
Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd
Written By: Catherine Johnson, songs by Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus
Cast: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski
Screened at: Lincoln Square, NYC, 7/9/08
Opens: July 18, 2008

People of “a certain age,” which is to say the mature adults who are expected to be this movie’s prime audience, would do well to go into the theater not expecting the brilliant tunes and thematic depth of Rodgers and Hammerstein (“South Pacific” as a case in point) or the remarkable wit and biting satirical thrusts of Lerner and Loewe (“My Fair Lady,” for example), or complex, atonal gems buy Stephen Sondheim (“Sunday in the Park With George”). There are only two or three songs that will remain with most of us the morning after. Nonetheless the stage show has had twenty productions, nine currently running, with an estimated 17,000 people seeing “Mamma Mia!” every night in various parts of the world.
What accounts for the popularity? For one (not necessarily a compliment), there’s its simplicity. The dialogue borders on the banal, the music lacks variety. For these reasons some critics have denigrated the work as “fit for tourists,” but then again, there’s nothing wrong with seeing the world through the eyes of a tourist, as one young man in the show explains to his bride-to-be.

Thanks to the magic of cinema, the stage production has been greatly expanded, the first thing noticeable being Haris Zambarloukos’s lensing on a remote Greek island, which looks out on pure blue water, a sun-streaked sky, both giving birth to inhabitants with lobster-red skin. If this is not an unintentional product placement for the Greek National Tourist Office, what is? Some have called “Mamma Mia!” a chick flick since none of director Phyllida Lloyd’s leading men come close to carrying the story when compared to the principal cast of women.

Each time a well-known actor like Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth or Stellan Skarsgard is given a few introductory notes from an invisible orchestra, the audience might sit on the edge of their seats wondering whether these remarkable performers can even carry a tune. The best one can say about the fellas is that they are good sports for being willing to expose their vocal chords for critical judgment. One of them, in fact, exposes a bit more while making breakfast. The real surprise is Meryl Streep, the star of the show, who can sing—although not quite up to the level that would prompt a job offer from Andrew Lloyd Webber.

No matter: this is a summer treat, an uncomplicated feel-good song-fest that has the actors obviously enjoying themselves immensely, even while figuring that some of us will think their vocalizing is campy rather than serious.

The women seem to be speed while the guys are the usual, relatively calm selves that men tend to be. The movie is all about exuberance, female exuberance in particular, the uncomplicated story an excuse to squeeze in twenty songs—of which the best known are “Mamma Mia!,” “Dancing Queen,” and “Super Trouper.”

The concept is this (and one must forget there is such a thing as DNA, even though the action takes place in 1999).
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a 20-year-old who has known no life except that on a tight little Greek isle, discovers in her mother’s diary that 21 years ago her mom slept with three males, one of whom must be Sophie’s dad. Determined to find out who, she secretly invites all three, using her mother’s name—Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) to her upcoming wedding to Sky (Dominic Cooper). She does not tell her mother about this as Donna (Meryl Streep), who owns a falling-apart hotel, has no intention of seeing them again. Surprisingly they all show up, none hiding a potential paternity, each competing to “give away” the bride the following day. Adding to the frenzied preparations, Donna’s best friends, the brash Rosie (Julie Walters) and the wealthy divorcee Tanya (Christine Baranski), cavort about, making no secret that they are hunting guys of their own, whether for a couple of days or for a lifetime.

The action is fast-moving, the women seeming to believe that this is their last weekend on the Earth and they’re determined to make the most of it, or as the inebriated Agnes Gooch would say in “Mame,” “Live, Live Live!” Meryl Streep again demonstrates that she is perhaps America’s greatest living actress, a multi-talented woman who can play a tragic title figure in “Sophie’s Choice,” a metallurgy worker at risk of being murdered by her corporate bosses in “Silkwood,” and now a singing, dancing, emoting ball of fire in “Mamma Mia!” Have fun!

Rated PG-13. 103 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online