Take A Chance On Mamma Mia? (Mamma Mia! (DVD))

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	Mamma Mia! (DVD)
Date:	16/06/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great scenery, dance routines & lots of Abba music.

Disadvantages: No plot to speak of.

I'll confess straight away that I haven't seen Mamma Mia on stage, nor did I get around to seeing the film when it was released at the cinema. This is despite the fact that I'm a massive Abba fan & own all their studio albums as well as a number of books about the group.

My partner surprised me by buying the DVD last week & we finally settled down to watch it tonight.

After hearing loads of people waxing lyrical about how great the film is I'm wondering whether that perhaps coloured my expectations of the film which, to be honest I found a little disappointing.

The cast:-

* Meryl Streep (Donna)
* Amanda Seyfried (Sophie)
* Julie Walters (Rosie)
* Christine Baranski (Tanya)
* Pierce Brosnan (Sam)
* Colin Firth (Harry)
* Stellan Skarsgård (Bill)
* Dominic Cooper (Sky)
* Ashley Lilley (Ali)
* Rachel McDowall (Lisa)

obviously had a great time filming the movie, doing the dance routines & singing the Abba songs and, if you're looking for a feel good movie then look no further that this.

The movie contains the following songs either complete or partially used:-

+ I Have A Dream
+ Hone Honey
+ Money Money Money
+ Mamma Mia
+ Chiquitita
+ Dancing Queen
+ Our Last Summer
+ Lay All Your Love On Me
+ Super Trouper
+ Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
+ Voulez Vous
+ SOS
+ Does Your Mother Know
+ Slipping Through My Fingers
+ The Winner Takes It All
+ I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
+ When All Is Said And Done
+ Take A Chance On Me
+ Waterloo
+ Thank You For The Music

and, on the whole are well performed & choreographed. There are lots of comedic moments in the movie & the whole thing looks gorgeous but the plot itself is wafer thin. The movie starts with Sophie reading her mother (Donna's) diary & telling her friends that her mother slept with 3 men during the summer before she was born & that one of them is her father. So, believing she'll know which one her father is, she invites all three of them to her wedding.

And that's about it. At one point or another Sophie ends up agreeing that each of the three men can give her away at the wedding, Donna ends up getting married to one of them, one comes out of the closet & Rosie (Julie Walters) makes a play for the third. We never actually find out which one of them is Sophie's father.

All in all, a reasonably entertaining film, but not one that I'm in a hurry to watch again. As I said, if you're looking for a feel good film then this ticks all the boxes. If you're looking for something with a bit of plot this is so not the film to choose......

Summary: Feel good box office record breaker