MAMMA MIA!
MAMMA MIA! |
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On a Greek island, Sophie invites three men to her wedding hoping to find out which one is her father. Feature adaptation of the popular stage musical. | score 2 |
moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable) |
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| Cast Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried Director Phylida Lloyd Screenwriter Catherine Johnson Country UK / USA Rating / Running Time PG / 108 minutes Australian Release August 2008 Official Site (c) moviereview
2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
Mamma
mia, here we go again: another day, another musical. Based on the hit
stage production, Lloyd forces the round pegs of ABBA songs into a
square hole story about yearning on a Greek island. And how could it
fail with toe-tapping numbers to which everyone (and I do mean everyone
who hasn’t spent the last 40 years on the moon) knows the words.
From the plaintive opener I Have A Dream to show-stoppers like Dancing Queen, Voulez Vous and The Winner Takes It All, Mamma Mia! has crowd-pleaser written all over it. Right? Well… Sophia (Amanda Seyfried) is getting married on the island where her mother (Meryl Streep) runs a hotel. She invites three men, one of which might be her father, to the wedding in the hope that the right one will giver her away - her mother is suitably horrified. They provide the action, ABBA provides the music, Greeks provide the chorus. Bringing her stage production to screen, Lloyd’s first feature is a cluttered, clunky affair that endlessly competes with its location. Curious technical and casting choices compounded by two groups of screeching women makes for a needlessly shrill production, aurally and visually. What might work on stage here falls flat; there’s a dispiriting sense that everyone is pushing the movie uphill. Big numbers are not so big, quiet numbers are not so quiet. Even a sure-fire chorus line of spunky boys dancing in flippers somehow fails to ignite. There are occasional moments; despite the best efforts of her foil Christine Baranski energises Does Your Mother Know while Julie Walters fires up her panto-shtick with Take A Chance On Me. But occasional moments can’t save a film so in love with the background it fails to see what’s happening in the foreground. // COLIN FRASER |