Mamma Mia – Movie review

Mamma Mia is enjoyable and funny. It is a sweet sweet movie, with a fantastic singing and acting performance from Meryl Streep. Yes, it’s a musical….the music is from Abba (a mid-seventies pop group), with lyrics like Dancing Queen and Money, Money, Money and a lot more choreographed to some rather bold dance steps and dramatic scenes. The movie is based on the successful Broadway musical of the same name.

As for the faults in this movie, there are many, and the New York times review enumerates them well. The movie is loud, at times the dance steps border on the vulgar, the costumes are crude, and the acting over the top…but there were some great things in the movie too. The subject for one. The movie is about mothers and daughters, a daughter’s desire to search for her father…and it’s also about romantic love. Some might call this a chick flick, but then labels like these often don’t capture the spirit of a movie.

The story (no spoilers)
The movie is primarily about older people. But even though the central character Donna (Meryl Streep) is a middle-aged lady whom love has passed by, her twenty year old daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has a pivotal role. In fact the movie opens with her and her friends on a Greek island where right in the first scene itself Sophie posts three invitations (for her wedding) to three different men. She believes that one of them is her father. The problem is – she doesn’t know who it is! This gives rise to comic situations. The fact that her mother Donna (who has had no contact whatsoever with these men in the intervening years) doesn’t know of the invites makes it all the more funny…when she finds out.
Sophie’s gang of friends are there at the island too (that is her home) and this young crowd takes part in several song sequences.

Another aspect of the movie that touched my heart was the deep friendship shown between three women…Donna and her friends. They come to the wedding and the reunion scenes are really sweet. I have some very good friends who live overseas and it made me long for them! Christine Baranaki and Julia Walters play Donna’s friends – Tanya and Rosie.

The actors
The movie has the charming Amanda playing Sophie (Donna’s daughter) but this movie would be nothing without the presence of an Oscar winning actress like Meryl Streep. The acting of the three men in the movie pales into insignificance when compared to Streep’s vivacity, energy and magnetism. Colin Firth plays Harry, Pierce Brosnan is Sam, and Stellan Skarsgard is Bill. Although Brosnan is my personal favourite, it was Colin Firth’s performance that I liked the best.

One would wonder why Streep would play a frothy role like this and I found her reasons here in this article on Rediff.com:

Streep has said she was drawn to the production and her role because of its ‘humanity, its spirit, and, of course the music.’ ‘The songs are timeless,’ she explains. ‘they just enter your body. When I came to learn them, I found I knew every single line. They have amazing hooks and great melodies.’ She also says that she was drawn by the emotional core of the story and the relationship between daughter and mother, and the friendship between the women.

Mamma Mia has been a hit abroad, having grossed $ 350 million in the last two months. It was released in America and some European countries in July (end June in the UK) but arrived in India last Friday. Nice to know that India hasn’t been at the tag end of its release schedule…the movie will be releasing in Singapore and Malaysia today and in Japan in January 2009.

So should one catch this movie? Sure, if you like melodious music, if you like musicals and if you like sentimental movies. And no, Mamma Mia is not a tear-jerker. The movie is a comedy, it’s light and makes you feel good. English speaking Indian audiences should enjoy this movie. The theatre we went to was three-quarters empty… but then it was Tuesday night. There was a small (no college crowds) English speaking crowd at the late show and they were clearly enjoying themselves. Just like we did.

(Photo credits: from mammamia.com, the movie site)

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