Review of Mamma Mia! (2008) by Doris R — 11 Jan 2012

007 sings! And he has quite a good voice at that. Mind you, Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried as well as newcomer Dominic Cooper also hold their own brilliantly. All in all, a fantastically transformed stage musical to film and it works, too. Yes, there is the odd ?over the top? scene particularly in the early set up but that does not diminish this absolutely fun movie in the least. A celebration indeed!

The storyline is simple. Donna ? Meryl Streep ? owns a small hotel on a Greek Island and has single handedly brought up daughter Sophie ? Amanda Seyfried ? for the past twenty years. Said offspring is now set to wed sweetheart Sky ? Dominic Cooper ? both very much in love and that chemistry comes across very adamantly. However, there is a dark cloud overshadowing fun loving, happy go lucky Sophie?s life ? she does not know who her father is. It is her dearest wish to be walked down the aisle by daddy dear. When she finds mom?s old diary (journal) during a tidying up session, she discovers three names of men that could make her dream come true and decides to send invitations to all of them in Donna?s name. Law and behold, adventurer/writer Bill Austin ? Stellan Skarsgard ? musician turned straight laced banker Harry Bright ? Colin Firth ? and successful New York architect Sam Carmichael ? Pierce Brosnan ? drop everything and are on their way to rekindle their Greek romance of twenty years earlier ? none of them having been able to shake their past and truly move on. And thus the fun and frolic singing and dancing is well under way, providing an entertaining hour and 48 minutes full of ABBA reminiscence with a magnificent Greek backdrop for the audience.

Mamma Mia required for all actors to sing and dance and it is an absolute joy watching them all rise to the occasion. Bill ends up tied to a pole, being ?menaced? by a bunch of pretty young women during the hen (bachelorette) party, banker Harry dances full swing, falls in love and most definitely lets his hair down while Sam pursues his old flame Donna who is determined that she is better off on her own.

While partying all three would be dads suddenly realise why they have been invited to the wedding in the first place and offer, in turn, to walk their daughter down the aisle. And thus chaos and mayhem are truly unleashed with some unexpected twists and turns in the end. Oh ? and watch out for a couple of unexpected but effective cameos!