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Mamma Mia! (2008)

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

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445 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Throughout the screening of ‘Mamma Mia!’ I kept clocking the security guard in the corner. What was he thinking, I wondered, as Pierce Brosnan belted out a power-ballad version of Abba’s ‘SOS’? For Bond purists, it must be like seeing your dad in a dress. Equally, what might this beacon of masculinity think if he saw me smiling as this featherweight and often ridiculous musical drew to a finale that’s so sunny, so saccharine, that you’d be forgiven for thinking that all involved were high on happy pills?

Presumably the guard was there to check that none of us took any snaps of Meryl Streep. There she was cavorting across the screen in dungarees with hair like straw, skipping through olive groves and singing ‘Dancing Queen’ with a Greek chorus in tow. One call to the taste police and the authorities would arrest her and withdraw all reels of this sickly sweet yet wildly – bafflingly – fun film. Once the credits – which feature the cast, dressed in pantomime ’70s gear, bashing out ‘Waterloo’ – had rolled, I asked the guard what he thought. ‘I’ve seen it four times,’ he said, with perfect timing. And you like it? Pause. ‘It has its moments.’

The story has all the symmetry and drive of a stage show. Twenty-year-old American Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is about to marry her fiancé, Sky (Dominic Cooper), in the grounds of a dilapidated hotel on a Greek island run by her tireless boho mother, Donna (Streep). Only she doesn’t know which of three of her mum’s former lovers is her dad. The solution? Invite them all.And so, unknown to Donna, businessman Sam (Brosnan), old hippy Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) and City gent Harry (Colin Firth) rock up to the sunniest of Greek islands.

They sing, they dance, they wonder who’s the father. It’s ‘Paternity: The Musical’. The story is pat, some voices are ropey, but Phyllida Lloyd succeeds in bringing this musical to the screen by indulging in not a whiff of ’70s nostalgia (until the credits), taking all the right things seriously – design, locations, casting, choreography – and rejecting elements that would have made it less forgivable: gloss, cynicism and irony.

Despite a flow of beach bods, there’s no worship of superficial beauty beyond the casting of the young leads, Seyfried and Cooper (and neither is a vapid youngster of ‘The OC’ sort). Lloyd plays it straight as a bat and finds a working balance between the fantasy of the musical numbers, the fairytale story and the down-to-earth presentation of the characters. The one concession she makes to Hollywood is that more of the leads are American than in the stage version – but she more than compensates by casting Julie Walters in a major role.

Just watch her sing and dance to ‘Take a Chance on Me’. There’s nothing slick about that. The men are a rum, awkward bunch. Skarsgård (age 57) looks like he’s having far too good a time being rubbed by young women during one number; Colin Firth doesn’t push the boat out and plays a bumbling Englishman; and, however hard he tries, Brosnan doesn’t remind you of Brando in ‘Streetcar…’ even when yelling ‘Donna!’ at Streep.

‘Mamma Mia!’ is not a man’s film. I mean this in the way that films about football hooligans who get loaded and smash the skulls of other hooligans are not women’s films. But I suspect that a fair few men (and not a few women) will find that this film appeals to an urge for wholesome trash and confounds their expectations. Against the odds, ‘Mamma Mia!’ is a summer movie that’s as camp as Christmas and as enjoyable as a pantomime. I suspect Streep will win an Oscar nomination; at 59, and still doing the splits, she’s game enough to deserve one.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2008-07-09 11:57:27

Time Out London Issue 1977, July 10 -16, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Amber said...

Posted on Dec 07 2008 18:18 i have just got the dvd so i hope it this good as every 1 says it is :):)
xxx

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CIS said...

Posted on Nov 25 2008 17:15 GOT THE DVD

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CIS said...

Posted on Nov 25 2008 17:15 I got the DVD i AM ENJOYING IT SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH STILL MAKING ME SMILE OH MAMMA MIA LOL

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Dianna said...

Posted on Nov 24 2008 15:26 I'm fifteen years old and hadn't even heard half the abba songs before this movie but I loved it anyway. Yes it was unrealistic but it's supposed to be and it was such a fun and uplifting feel-good film. Loved every minute of it!

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Ken said...

Posted on Nov 20 2008 01:06 Yes...I think that it was really that good!

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Safiiyyah said...

Posted on Nov 19 2008 21:53 Is it really that good? :|

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Ken said...

Posted on Nov 17 2008 16:25 I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS MOVIE! I SAW IT 3 TIMES! I saw the regular one twice and I saw the Sing-Along Version once! LOVED EVERY MOMENT OF IT!

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crazie aimee said...

Posted on Nov 16 2008 17:38 i love donna and sofie and sky love them would want to see them in real life lol.

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Amy said...

Posted on Nov 16 2008 15:05 Just seen it for the first time. Absolutely brilliant. Wish I'd seen it ages ago. Love the whole cast. Love Colin. Best film of the year.

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nat said...

Posted on Nov 16 2008 12:40 mammia wa fab great story loved the people who starred u done ur self proud who eva produced it

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Abba said...

Posted on Nov 04 2008 19:05 Agree with the above comment, but that song ' mama mia' has got to my head lol. The other songs did do my head in but this film is worth watching. 'mama mia, here i go again'

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Jenn said...

Posted on Nov 03 2008 21:32 My Auntie Has Seen It 5 Times :O It Must Be Good ..x

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BigAl said...

Posted on Nov 03 2008 15:51 Mamma Mia is a wonderful escapism film. Loads of laughter descent storyline. Excellently cast, yes even Pierce Brosnan's singing just adds to to fun! Great to see children dancing in the isles and nobody caring because everyone was in such a feel good mood.

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aimee said...

Posted on Oct 29 2008 21:44 i think mamma mia is fab i`m still watching the film and i`ve seen it well this is going to be the fourteenth time.

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lucy said...

Posted on Oct 28 2008 17:25 this was the best film i have ever seen when i came out of the cinema i was singing all the abba songs. i didnt really think that it was going to be good but it was amazing.

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