Mamma Mia! (2008)
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
A spirited young bride-to-be living with her single mother on a small Greek island secretly invites three of her mother's ex-boyfriends in hope of finding her biological father to walk her down the aisle.
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Billy Wilder tried the same trick with “Avanti!,” in 1972, but that felt like late Chekhov compared with this ferocious onslaught of obligatory good cheer.
And while we knew this woman of 1,000 voices could also sing – Streep handled vocal duties in A Prairie Home Companion and Postcards from the Edge with skill – turns out she's got a primo set of pipes and a fearless style of from-the-heart dancing that shows she can handle the heavy lifting required to carry a musical lead.
"Mamma Mia!" is the debut feature film of British stage director Phyllida "Keep Your Day Job" Lloyd, but it feels more like a movie made by a karaoke machine than a human being: We're constantly being reminded what a great time the cast is having, particularly the women, as they cavort and mug before us, swinging their swishy skirts and throwing their heads back as if they truly believed they were channeling Dorothy Dandridge in "Carmen Jones."
I can already see your brow furrowing: "Hey, isn't that pretty close to the story of the little-known 1968 sex farce Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell ?"
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I've known people who take exception to films like Chicago and Hairspray on the grounds that their Hollywood casts aren't up to the demands of the stage-inspired choreography, and that the camerawork and editing militate against a coherent expression of physical prowess and orchestrated movement.
There's no reason this motion picture couldn't contain all the effulgence and expertise of other musical adaptations like Hairspray and Chicago, but Lloyd appears to be so blissfully ignorant of the dynamics of moviemaking that, aside from the songs themselves, there's little joy to be found in the musical numbers.
However, in the wake of “Moulin Rouge,” “ Hairspray ,” “ Chicago ” and “Across the Universe,” the movie’s old-fashioned approach just feels old-fashioned.
Although Mamma Mia is not shot with the kind of razzamatazz style a Rob Marshall ( Chicago ) might have brought, Lloyd ’s feature film debut hits the mark with zeal, enthusiasm and the gift of fun.
You won’t find any razor-sharp choreography, pitch-perfect singing, or stunning production numbers in Mamma Mia!, so if you’re looking for another Dreamgirls or Chicago, you’re out of luck.
For aficionados of such things, I should point out that this movie is not quite in the rarefied company of "Paint Your Wagon" – which featured Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin tonelessly warbling – or "At Long Last Love," which pretty much soured Hollywood on the musical genre for years.
Cue her best pals and backup singers rambunctious Rosie (Educating Rita's Julie Walters, showing a real talent for physical comedy) and thrice-married tigress Tanya (Christine Baranski of TV's Cybill) who have come to the island for some pre-wedding partying.
Hunky Colin Firth (Pride and Prejudice) brings a thin yet pleasing singing voice to uptight Brit banker Harry, who discovers his inner satyr beneath the Greek sun, making an eyebrow-raising transformation.
Colin Firth may have caused women to swoon when he played Mr. Darcy, but that's probably because he didn't sing in Pride and Prejudice .
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Also more than holding their own are Christine Baranski ( The Grinch ) and Julie Walters ( Calendar Girls ) as Donnas old friends, the other members of Donna and the Dynamos, their former trio.
Who could have imagined Streep as Donna Sheridan, the lusty Greek taverna owner whose dalliances on the island with three men back in the ’70s have resulted in a daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried from Mean Girls), now about to get married?
The best of the bunch is Amanda Seyfried (2004's " Mean Girls "), whose lovely voice and wide-eyed appearance helps to make Sophie a sympathetic presence.
Her 20-year-old daughter Sophie (Mean Girls' Amanda Seyfried) is about to marry hunky boyfriend Sky (Dominic Cooper).
The show's thin plot — a young girl invites three men, one of whom might be her father, to her wedding on the beautiful Greek island where she lives with her innkeeper mom — is still thin; but it has more heart now, thanks mainly to Amanda Seyfried ( "Mean Girls" ), who plays the girl; Pierce Brosnan , Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård , who play the men; and, most of all, fearless Meryl Streep , who throws herself into the proceedings with complete abandon, and in a show-stopping, cliff-top rendition of "The Winner Takes It All," shows off some most impressive pipes.
In movies like Mean Girls and Alpha Dog, she has been relegated to secondary roles, yet has always shown the kind of spark that suggests a star in the making.