Mamma Mia!

What's it all about?
Some girl (She was on 'House' once) is getting married and decides to invite three men who might be her father to the wedding.

James Bond, Mr. Darcy and Orlando Bloom's dad promptly turn up, only for her to figure out that without extensive DNA testing, she has no idea which one her real father is.

So she sings ABBA songs.

Looks Like...
A really sunny Greek holiday. It's all very bright and sunny, an image of what the world would look like if ABBA ruled it.

Seriously, the "run-down" hotel has a magnificent courtyard, the sea is crystal clear and even the servants dance around and smile ALL the time. The boys run around topless, to show off their fabulous beach bodies. Sadly, the girls don't.

Sounds Like...
ABBA songs. Lots and lots of ABBA songs. So if you are a huge fan of ABBA, go you! See the film, sing along, enjoy yourself. If, however, you don't particularly care for them, you may find it a little grating.

The songs don't always match. Unlike a traditional musical, in which the songs are written for the story, this story is written for the music. So you'll often find that maybe one or two lines in the song are relevant, whilst the others sit out of place, or kinda, sorta work if you think about it really hard and abstractly.

Also, ABBA wrote these songs over several years and each song reflects the mood they were in at the time. So whilst they might have been melancholy writing 'Money Money Money' for example, they could quite easily me happy whilst writing 'Mamma Mia', something they could have done days, weeks, months afterwards.

In the film however, if you have the two songs playing one after the other, you must somehow create a story device that has the character in the right mood for the song. Usually in about five minutes. This just leaves the characters switching emotions like some freak combination of a menopausal, pregnant woman hitting puberty.

And this would all be excusable if the cast could sing. Unfortunately, that's asking too much of them. They can screech horribly, and dance a merry jig, but it all falls down when they open their mouths.

Meryl Streep can hold a tune, sure. But it's in the same way as that girl whose family tells her how much they like her singing, who'll only have her heart broken when she auditions for X-factor (Or American Idol) and doesn't even get through to see the judges because she is neither phenomenal, nor bad enough for a nation of TV viewers to mock. She's just meh.

Piece Brosnan is terrible, but at least he provides entertainment with the faces that he pulls. Julie Walters sounds like a tyre screech and everyone else either doesn't get a chance to sing, is pleasantly average, or is a Greek peasant who, judging by their acting performances, are all trained singers.

Tastes Like...
Sickly sweet, with a hint of cheese.

Feels Like...
The overriding feeling I got from this film was embarrassment. You remember at that New Years party that one year, when your mum, your aunt and your granny all got REALLY drunk, put on an ABBA song, climbed on a table, and proceeded to screech vaguely in tune whilst swaying side-to-side in what they must have considered a dance? Well, this film feels like that, magnified by a hundred and set on a Greek island.

Whenever the film gets round to telling more of the story, an interesting premise is turned predictable and people expositionalize like they've all had their 'subtext' buttons switched off.

The young couple argue in every scene they're in, making it hard to believe that they were ever in love. The girls screech too much and the boys can't sing. It is all too perfect enough to make it horribly cheesy.

And you know what?

Everything I've said above completely misses the point of this film. It isn't going to win any Oscars, but it was never made to do that. I'd argue that it wasn't even made to be a film. It was made to be an experience.

It was made so that our older generation have a reason to visit the cinema. They can go and enjoy the ABBA music, Meryl Streep and Colin Firth with his top off, because these are all things that older people like (It's been researched and everything).

They're not after a complicated plot line, or the best acting in the world. They just want to go out and enjoy the show and the music.

And it's not ALL bad. The potential dads pull some pretty funny material out of the bag when necessary, as do the older women when they aren't screeching loudly. The songs are never bad and the storyline works in a workmanlike way. Sure, you can figure out where everyone will be at the climax (Except for Colin Firth, who's ending came out of nowhere!) but you can enjoy the journey getting there.

It wasn't my kind of film. I like being a film student and having things to mull over and analyse. But I can't hold that against it.

Verdict...
Simplistic, but fun if you like that sort of thing.