Mamma Mia! (DVD)

Sophie lives with her bohemian mother Donna on a remote Greek island where they run a hotel together. She is about to get married to her fiancé Sky, but there's one thing missing in her life; a father. She reads her mother's diary from the summer before she was born and discovers there are three possible dads - Harry, Sam and Bill. Unbeknownst to her mother she invites all three to the wedding, hoping she will know which is her father when she meets ...
...wedding and Donna is in for the surprise of her life.

This is only director Phyllida Lloyd's second stab at directing for the screen, having spent most of her career helming stage operas. Sadly her inexperience shows with a musical that never really expands beyond its stage origins. You don't get the impression of a world existing beyond the bounds of the screen. Although some of the exteriors were clearly shot around the Greek islands, ... more

Sophie lives with her bohemian mother Donna on a remote Greek island where they run a hotel together. She is about to get married to her fiancé Sky, but there's one thing missing in her life; a father. She reads her mother's diary from the summer before she was born and discovers there are three possible dads - Harry, Sam and Bill. Unbeknownst to her mother she invites all three to the wedding, hoping she will know which is her father when she meets them. All of them arrive on the eve of the wedding and Donna is in for the surprise of her life.

This is only director Phyllida Lloyd's second stab at directing for the screen, having spent most of her career helming stage operas. Sadly her inexperience shows with a musical that never really expands beyond its stage origins. You don't get the impression of a world existing beyond the bounds of the screen. Although some of the exteriors were clearly shot around the Greek islands, Lloyd doesn't make enough of the locations, using anonymous beaches and headlands that could be anywhere in the Mediterranean. These are contrasted with the obvious soundstage settings of the hotel where the many whitewashed rooms suffer from studio-bound lighting so look fake. Despite the ramshackle backdrop to the film, it's the sort of production that would benefit from smooth camerawork and a bit of glitz and glamour in the direction. But Lloyd's shots often blur and it feels like the camerawork is improvised, as in the periods of pointless hand-held work that does nothing to add excitement or highlight the action.

The song-and-dance routines look rough, with some cast members struggling to hit their notes and nobody appearing to know exactly what their steps are. And that is unforgivable in any musical. The older players seem to be enjoying themselves, but it isn't enough to overcome the rock-bottom production values. The closest we get to glamour is a tacky glitter title in the opening credits and an abundance of sequins in some of the costumes. The worst offender is the "Money, Money, Money" sequence where we see Meryl Streep and her cronies in soft-focus on a chintzy yacht, looking exactly as if they've stumbled out of a music video from the seventies. In other words it looks cheap and under-prepared. Every routine precipitates a clunking gear shift and a slight cringe as we launch into yet another Abba track, which as often as not, doesn't quite fit the emotions it is meant to convey. This is particularly true of those during the final few minutes where it feels like the director is trying to shoehorn in as many recognisable songs before the credits roll. It's the equivalent of a curtain call reprise and just doesn't work on film because the story has been resolved.

The director doesn't attempt to make her characters feel realistic, leaving them the barely sketched protagonists of a stage musical. Instead of encouraging her players to build an inner life for their respective roles, she is content to let the largely female cast coast by on a chorus of girly squealing. She covers too many of the relationships with montages that stop you from getting to know the players. As a result it often feels as if key plot points and character arcs have been excised from the story. This makes it very difficult to care about the players and in conjunction with the paper-thin plot the film stutters between songs. The resulting film is a sentimental grab-bag of sing-along songs that will be adored by women of a certain age, but to me felt like a waste of a hundred-and-eight minutes of my life.

The screenplay by Catherine Johnson is a rehash of her original musical book. But it is her background in writing for television (particularly soap operas) that shines through in her writing, in as far as her plotting is riddled with clichés. The characterisation is anaemic and the action often stops to make way for yet another song. You can tell where the story is going from the outset and from thereon in it's just a case of ticking the boxes and hitting the milestone moments. To say the story is predictable is an understatement. The songs used are either too literal or don't relate strongly enough to their narrative function within the screenplay. Sadly the lack of character development hinders the story because you don't get to know Sophie and Sky in any way so you don't care one way or the other whether they get married. The only things we know about Donna are that she slept around a bit during her youth and that her mother didn't approve of getting pregnant out of wedlock. Her friends Rosie and Tanya are clearly there just to provide comic relief. There isn't enough to differentiate between the potential fathers as Harry, Sam and Bill are all successful men in their own fields who had a bit of a wild streak way back when. Sophie's best friends meanwhile open the proceedings but then disappear so feel like redundant plot devices. The dialogue is stagy in the worst possible way, failing to strike a balance between exposition and emotion. Consequently it feels clunky.

There's a reason you haven't seen Meryl Streep in any musicals; she simply doesn't have the required skill set. She may be considered one of the greatest living actresses but she struggles to convey emotion through song, substituting scrunching up her face as if in pain for emotion. Her singing voice is ropey and she is a dreadful dancer and her entire performance feels stilted.

However, Streep is streets ahead of Pierce Brosnan as Sam in the singing stakes, as he strains his voice to hit any note during his musical numbers. He can't even lip-synch convincingly and has no chemistry with his on-screen love interest. Colin Firth plays another of his patented stiff-upper-lip characters as Harry, making the role feel rather generic. His singing is passable but not exceptional. Stellan Skarsgård makes the most of his limited role as Bill, ensuring that he doesn't have to sing or dance. Julie Walters is reliable comic relief as Donna's earthy friend Rosie. But despite her good comic timing, she feels a bit OTT compared to the lacklustre performances around her. Christine Baranski probably has the best voice in the cast; a pure, clear musical theatre voice that she slinks up with husky tones.

Amanda Seyfried looks pretty and chaste as Sophie, with a reasonable alto voice. However, there is nothing about her performance that really stands out. Dominic Cooper is bland and boyish as Sky. He at least makes some attempt to act the songs, but doesn't get enough screen-time to develop the character.

The soundtrack is chock-a-block with memorable Abba tunes, often capsized by poor delivery. The arrangements feel very musical theatre - a little larger than life, making everything a touch melodramatic. But the problem comes in giving the majority of the big numbers like "Money, Money, Money" and "The Winner Takes it All" to Meryl Streep, who doesn't have a strong enough voice to carry them. So they lack punch. Meanwhile tracks like "SOS" are wasted on Streep and Pierce Brosnan because you're more concerned with their delivery than the content. Some of the big chorus numbers such as "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" and "Voulez Vous" are fine, if somewhat generic renditions hampered by chintzy synthesizers. As musical soundtracks go, it's rather disappointing and I can't help feeling you'd be better off singing along to Abba's "Gold" greatest hits selection. However, Christine Baranski's rendition of "Does Your Mother Know" hits all the right notes.

"Mamma Mia!" is a film that will succeed because of the affection people have for the original stage musical and Abba's original songs. But that is not to say this is a good film. It doesn't work as a musical largely because the major roles have been given to big names regardless of their musical abilities. It's almost embarrassing to watch the likes of Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan trying to keep up with the lyrics and stay in time with their dance steps. The production values are extremely low and the impression that the stars are having fun isn't enough to save the film from itself. The direction is shaky and the writing limp and the acting generally unimpressive. It's a shoddy cash-in that doesn't deserve to be watched. Save up and go and see the stage version instead. 

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