Went to go and see this for my birthday today and absolutely loved it. The acting yes could have been better and they could have hired actors that maybe sung a little bit better than Colin Firth & Peirce Brosnon but other than that it was an enjoyable film, but goes a bit unseen by the younger generation (my sister) who only knew one song in the whole film.
What is Mamma Mia?
A film adaptation on the west end musical based on the songs of the pop group ABBA. The film follows Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) as she plans to get married to Sky (Dominic Cooper) and her doting mother Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep).
However there's one thing missing from her life, her father. She reads her mother's diary and finds out she has three possible fathers: Sam (Peirce Brosnon), who was the love of her mothers life, but then left her heartbroken, Harry (Colin Firth) the rocker who became Donna's next fling and then Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) her third fling that summer. Sophie invites all three, hoping when she'll see them, she'll know who her father is.
The Cast
Meryl Streep (Donna Sheridan): Amazingly quite a good singer. On a TV program a couple of weeks ago, you saw that she preformed one of the songs all in one take, which is quite obvious in the film. She can hold quite a good note, and really makes the film great, a big difference from The Devil Wears Prada, I'll give you that. A very good comedic actress which I had only ever seen before in Death Becomes Her.
Amanda Seyfried (Sophie Sheridan): Definetly the best and most professional singer of the group. Only ever seen this actress as the dopy one in Mean Girls, but she manages to hold her own in this film. Her voice is beautiful and she has great potential as an actress.
Julie Walters (Rosie): A film with Julie Walters messing around can only be good. She really makes the funny moments in the film, even funnier. Her voice may not be the best of the best, but she still brings a smile to your face.
Christine Baranski (Tanya): She's got a great voice, and is a great comedic actress alongside Julie Walters.
Pierce Brosnan (Sam): He plays an American architect who is Sophie's possible dad #1. Imagine a chubbier James Bond, attempting to sing and failing quite awfully I have to say, but still it makes you laugh.
Colin Firth (Harry): He plays possible father #2. I was amazed at how well he sung, he was definitely better than the other two. Great actor though.
Stellan Skarsgard (Bill): He plays possible father #3. A good actor, but a forgettable performance.
Dominic Cooper (Sky): He plays Sophie's fiancée. He's got a very nice body and an alright voice, but does nothing for me really in the film. Shame they didn't hire someone hotter.
The Songs
The film starts of with Sophie singing 'I Have A Dream' and ends with her singing this as well. It's a lovely song to begin a film with.
I don't want to mention all of the songs in the film, so I'll just mention the performances that stood out for me.
Meryl Streep singing Mamma Mia was great and could have been so much better if the camera work wasn't so dodgy. She's got an amazing voice.
Dancing Queen preformed by every woman on the island was a great uplifiting moment.
SOS is a good performance just because it drowns out Peirce's Brosnon's voice a lot.
The Winner Takes It All preformed by Meryl Streep is a fantastic piece in the movie. She puts all of the emotion in she can. Brilliant.
My Opinion
I didn't know what to expect going into watch this. We went to see a theatre production of Footloose for my mum's and my birthday last year (I had never seen the film so didn't know what to expect) and absoltulty hated it so thought this film might just be as bad.
It's very light-hearted and enjoyable and the two female leads were fantastic as both actresses and singers. Julie Walters steels the show though, you can just tell that she took the most from dancing around and made that character her own.
I'm not a big fan of musicals like Grease or any like that, I'm more of a Rent or Moulin Rouge kinda gal, but this film really made me smile. The camera work in some places was slightly dodgy, it panned into the actors faces when it didn't need to which made you slightly boseyed.
The crowd was probably filled with 10 children under the age of 18, and it was a packed cinema so the atmosphere was very different I think than what you we would have got if you went to see if with people who pretty much didn't know the songs, I only barely know them because of my mum.
The films doesn't take itself too seriously, if you wanna have a good laugh and see the beautiful scenery they film in then this film is for you. As long as you take ear muffs for when Peirce Brosnan's singing you'll be fine, but when he and Meryl Streep perform SOS it's nothing short of hilarious.
The Good Points
Great uplifting film where you will most defintley leave smilining.
The Bad Points
The three male's in the film weren't very good singers at all, Peirce Brosnan's singing was quite painful at times. The acting felt a little bit too over acted at points, which made it seem quite fake and the extras popping up to sing along with the songs made me cringe, but that was just me.
Overall
Go and watch it. It's a great film to watch with friends and family; it certainly made my birthday a good one.
