Mamma Mia! film review

certificate_PG

MAMMA MIA!

There's an extraordinary fact about Mamma Mia!, the most successful of all musicals based on the songs of one group: every day around the world, 30,000 people go to see the stage show. That's an incredible figure and one which pretty much guarantees success for the inevitable big screen version. Fans of the show and the band are likely to lap it up, but those who are new to the whole phenomenon may find it a very strange experience.

Why strange? Because there is no other way to describe seeing the likes of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth burst into an Abba song (with varying degrees of success) at various intervals.

The plot - as with most musicals that have a similar provenance - is flimsy. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is a twentysomething about to get married on the Greek island where her mother (Meryl Streep) owns a rundown hotel. She would like to invite her father but herein lies the problem: since her mother had various affairs before she was born, Daddy could be one of three men. So she invites them all to the wedding, much to her mother's horror.

The three duly arrive: uptight city worker Harry (Colin Firth), businessman Sam (Pierce Brosnan) and eternal slacker Bill (Stellan Skarsgard). Completing the line-up are Sophie's mother's friends from her youth, extravagantly played by the exuberant Christine Baranski and the garrulous Julie Walters. Given the circumstances, it's not hard to see where Abba classics such as Money, Money, Money or Does Your Mother Know might fit into the equation.

Instead of opting for a director with cinematic pedigree, the powers-that-be have gone for Phyllida Lloyd, who directed the original stage show. She throws everything including the kitchen sink at the screen, and despite being given a Greek island to film on, she has made a film that seems curiously stage-bound. This is a film that is never given a moment to breathe, and as a result it's hard to get involved in the drama. Such quibbles will undoubtedly be ignored by the millions who will go and see it, who will no doubt exit the cinema singing a medley of Abba songs.

Paul Hurley