Mamma Mia
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Who’s in it: Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan
What’s it about: A young woman (Amanda Seyfried, “Mean Girls”) invites three men (who might be her father) to her wedding without telling her mother (Streep) – all to the music of ABBA!
Whee!: This film version of the Broadway hit is the most entertaining summer musical since “Grease” – a frothy, fun-filled romp from start to finish. The story is slight but who cares when the actors are belting out ABBA classics at the slightest provocation? And what a cast: Oscar-winner Streep looks like she’s having more fun than she’s had in years as the aging hippie who had a trio of summer flings 20 years earlier – and doesn’t know which one is the father of her daughter.
Now she owns a struggling hotel in Greece and doesn’t know that her daughter has secretly invited her old flames to the wedding, in hopes of figuring out which one is really her dad. And the three guys – Firth, Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgard – join in the fun, singing with a twinkle in their eye and more feeling than you’d expect. An added treat: Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, as Streep’s oldest friends, who also come for the wedding. The Greek-island setting is gorgeous and the music has that catchy ABBA sound – but also works as a comment on the action and the characters.
Long story short: Careful – it could cause spontaneous sing-alongs!
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