Mamma Mia! Is The Name Of The Game~

Let's call 2008's musical movie Mamma Mia! what it is. Its story is a silly contrivance for the purpose of stringing together as many songs by the Swedish 70s' pop group ABBA as possible. There were an astounding twenty songs in the two hour chic flick. I was reminded of the French film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which I hated at the time, but its songs-as-storytelling structure seems more authentic than Mamma Mia‘s. I think the songs were actually written for the film. In the laughable Director's Commentary with Phyllida Lloyd who directed the popular stage musical version as well, she imagines that the story set on a remote Greek island recalls the ancient journey of Odysseus in his sailing vessel and of Greek mythology. The author Homer and Greek gods would feel insulted.

It's not that I hate musicals, romantic comedies or ABBA music in moderation, but the kitschy music every five minutes or less drove me to despair first, then horror, and the supposed romance of the comedy (or, better yet, farce) was predicated on these songs. The characters on this island, from the younger generation to the older, appeared to act like a bunch of puppets on a string being propped up by the energy of the songs. In between songs they're unable to say anything clever, but only reveal the triteness of their sad lives.

If you're wondering about the story, by all means let me relieve the suspense. A sweet twenty-year-old girl wants to know who her father is so he can give her away on her wedding day and so she reads her mother's diary. When she realizes it could be three men and her mother doesn't even know, she still writes them all to invite them. I guess she believes her dream will come true, anyway. So they all come (from far corners of the world) without any clue as to who was inviting them or why. Of course the daughter hasn't told her mother and tries to keep it a secret, which you know is idiotic. From then it devolves into the hopeful romance I mentioned earlier, not only between the engaged couple but the mother and one of the men, and a very predictable disaster with all the men deciding they must be the happy father.

I did warn you. If it wasn't for some good singing and frothy songs set to scenic visuals and most appreciated by ABBA fans, there wouldn't be a reason to watch Mamma Mia!. The daughter played by Amanda Seyfried has an enchanting voice and reminds me of Kate Hudson while her mother played by Meryl Streep does a pretty good job singing and acting. The man she really loves is gamely played by ex-James Bond Pierce Brosnan who trained his voice, he claims, with two ABBA members, but the result is not a voice blessed by the Greek gods. I think cats would hiss in protest and scurry away.

The other two men, played gamely as well by Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard, are just in it for the laughs or money. I didn't mind Firth's singing voice, but the ‘gods' were smiling on Streep's character and Brosnan's for some reason. Maybe because Brosnan wouldn't play a gay guy (so Firth did). Reagan refused as well in the 1939 film Dark Victory and he was allowed to ruin his character. In this movie Brosnan also ruined his character playing it straight! As for the mother's friends who sing with her sometimes, played by Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, they do have a good time being screwballs. Walters is the least gifted singer of the two. Baranski kicks as* with "Does Your Mother Know?" on the beach with lots of mostly-nude guys, but Walters' same attempt with a forgettable song later is wince-able and boring. Most of the movie drags so badly because of the number of high-energy songs weighing it down, besides the story. It did kind of fascinate me, though, in the way I'm fascinated by watching a collision of cars on ice.

I have to give Hollywood some credit with attempting to show a middle-aged romance, but it was so farcical and the guy's singing so unromantic that it seems more like a half-hearted attempt. Mamma Mia! was not helped, either, by a crane operator on speed. The only reason it has been popular with some females is because they love singing along with the songs and don't care about the story. The name of the game is mindless fun and escape for a while, but, with few exceptions, it was a little more like a mindless exercise to escape from for me.