Mamma Mia!

January 22, 2011 - The music of Swedish pop band ABBA serves as the inspiration for this 2008 musical RomCom set in Greece. Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Amanda Seyfried star. The solid supporting cast includes Colin Firth, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski. The movie is based on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical of the same name.

Seyfried plays a young woman named Sophie, who's about to marry a hunky Greek lad named Sky. The wedding will take place on a Greek island at a hotel owned and operated by Sophie's single mother, Donna (Streep). Donna has never married but, as Sophie learns from reading her mother's diary, she had one wild summer 20 years ago and Sophie was the result. In a desperate attempt to find out who her father is, Sophie secretly invites the three men mentioned in the diary (Brosnan, Firth and some other guy) to her wedding. Also invited are Donna's best friends (Baranski and Walters). Back in the day, they were a musical act called "Donna and the Dynamos."

While Sophie tries to figure out which of the men is her dad, and while Donna tries to recover from the shock of seeing her three former lovers again, and while plans for the wedding are put somewhat in doubt, everyone gets to sing one or two of ABBA's hit songs with the villagers acting as the Greek chorus. They also dance while they sing.

Overall review: ** The plot is kind of lame and the actors, for the most part, aren't very good singers (Streep isn't bad and Baranski is quite good). But, the music is familiar, the dances are fanciful, and everyone seemed to have a really good time. That enthusiasm makes Mamma Mia! rather enjoyable to watch.