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.

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 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.

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.

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.