Every now and then a film comes along that I am persuaded to watch, against my better judgment, and I end up liking, although not sure why. These films are somehow a mismatch of casting talent, and some strange plotline, but weirdly, it works. Mamma Mia is one such film, with its all star cast and glitzy dance routines and a soundtrack to make any 70s and 80s child grin, whether they like Abba or not.

Mamma Mia tells the story of Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried), who is due to get married to Sky (Dominic Cooper) but doesn't want to do so without her dad being there. The one slight problem is that she doesn't know who he is. Sneakily looking in her mum Donna's diary, she goes back to before she was born and works out it must be one of three men: Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgard), Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan) or Harry Bright (Colin Firth). So, in her naivety, she invites all three, hoping to be able to spot her father on sight! Meanwhile, Donna, completely unaware of her daughter's potentially wedding-ruiningly silly idea, welcomes her two best friends and ex-band members Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski), and it's not long before everyone involved is singing as the adventure moves along swiftly and Sophie realises she hasn't got a clue which one of them is her dad. And the hardest part is that she has to keep them away from her mum or she'll flip! Will the wedding go ahead? And will Sophie work out who is her dad? Well, you'll have to watch to find out.

However, professionalism conquers all and, despite going through a number of famous actors more suited to the roles than those who were chosen, I didn't think they did a bad job at all. The scriptwriters have had a ball with giving some comedy lines to the characters. Whether this stems from the stage production or not I do not know, but the comedy effect is there throughout the film and I did find myself laughing quite a lot. The star of the show in terms of performance is Streep. She seems completely at home in this role, and obviously loved doing it as well. At an awards ceremony where she picked up the award for leading actress, she told the audience that she had never had more fun making a film in all her life, and she's made a lot of films! You can see how much fun the entire cast have as they dance and prance around the island in the sun, wearing skimpy clothing and being followed eerily by a bunch of dancing Greek natives!

Now for the negatives. Despite really enjoying some of the performances, I couldn't help wondering about the haphazard casting. Pierce Brosnan seems out of place in a musical, and although he can sing, it's not great and I imagine he was there more for his fame and the fact that his part required a bit more acting by a 'hunk' than any other. Colin Firth is hilarious, and I praise him, but Skarsgard seems a little out of place, too. Walters and Baranski work very well together and with Streep, but again, the casting confuses me, and I wasn't sure if this sextet of maturing stars could pull it off. They did, but I felt surprised that a film of Abba's music and based on a stage play that was alredy hugely successful would fill its casting list with such a wide range of already know stars who are okay at singing and dancing. To my mind, it would have made more sense to cast some unknowns in the Hollywood world but who were top of their field in the singing and dancing stakes.

In all, I don't think I have seen a film where the cast seem to have had more fun acting it out. Even the more sombre scenes have spontaneous singing that you can't help but smile at, and I strongly recommend that you give this a go. Even if you are not a massive fan of Abba, it's still worth a go just to test the water as it is pure fun.