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I went to see "Mamma Mia" expecting a light, campy, energetic, mindless, tuneful 2 hours of ABBA music in a movie house.
Anyone expecting the same would be better off staying home and watching "Priscella, Queen of the Desert" or "Murial's Wedding". In both the story line is more engrossing and the musical numbers are certainly presented a lot better. At one point I wish I had opted to see "The Dark Knight" instead which would have been a strange choice for me.
I had seen a touring company of "Mamma Mia" and the cherry on top of the cake was the ending where the company got the audience up in the aisles singing and dancing. They tried the same thing in the movie and it came over flat like most of the movie.
It is very obvious that this film was in the hands of a first time director. Every scene is 'off' for one reason or another. I don't think of Streep as a 'beauty' but she is photographed so badly in this film that she is almost ugly. The continuity is way off--in one scene her eyes and nose are all red and the one immediately following she is all shiny and bright. Her hair is stringy as if single, working mothers in Greece never comb or wash their hair. She is not served at all by the production crew whether it is hair, makeup, costumes, etc. There are so many unflattering shots of Christine Baranski I would sue if I were her. The only female to come out unmarked is Julie Walters and that is mainly because of the character she is playing.
All that keeps this show afloat on stage are the musical numbers as the story is trivial and is just a way to present the ABBA numbers while the movie shows everything that is wrong with the 'story lines'.
I am not particularly a fan of Streep and this in no way changes that as she isn't over the top enough to make it campy and looks/acts very badly in most of her scenes. I have heard her sing before and she has just been okay but here she ruins "Winner Takes It All" and is not photographed well at all in this number as well as others.
The men; Pierce Brosan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard, are not singers but none will lose their careers over their roles in this film nor will the two young leads, Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper, careers be hurt too much though I don't think any will put this film on their resume.
I won't even get into the musical productions numbers except to say I could have choreographed and/or photographed them better!!
Do yourself a favor--either watch Priscella, Queen of the Desert or Murial's Wedding or put on a CD of ABBA's best hit songs.
For the record: Gino loved the movie, Allen enjoyed it and John thinks it is the worst movie of the year.
