Starring: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried Director: Phyllida Lloyd Category: IIA Music snobs used to scoff at Abba, but over time even the grumpiest cynic has embraced the band's lite'n'trite Swedish meatballs, even if just in a 'so bad it's good' way. That's why the stage musical on which the movie Mamma Mia! is based is so successful. It's also why the screen version will be a success, even though as a movie it's quite a mess. In case you've not seen the stage version, the plot involves a young woman who invites three older men (Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Pierce Brosnan) to her wedding on a Greek isle. She believes one of the men had a one-night stand with her hippie mum (Meryl Streep) two decades earlier and is her father. The real excuse for the narrative is to string together a continuous mix of Abba's hummable 1970s ditties. As old feelings meet their Waterloo, beleaguered guys cry SOS, ageing gals return as Dancing Queens and a surprised mum hollers, 'Mamma Mia! Here we go again!' Executive-produced by Tom Hanks (who seems to like making films about big, fat, Greek weddings), it's obvious everyone's here simply for a bit of fun, because you certainly can't take the material seriously. The three potential dads have a bit more to do than in the musical and it all makes a lovely advertisement for the Aegean Sea. But sadly, the look of the movie just doesn't jive with the infectious disco-pop gloss and the sugar-coated harmonies. The film cries out for saturated Technicolor brilliance; instead, it's as if the gaffer missed the flight and so the scenes were shot in blistering sunlight. The film's helmswoman, Phyllida Lloyd, who also directed the stage version, doesn't know how to frame film choreography. There isn't the visual exuberance of Disney's Enchanted or the camp fabulousness of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. This is a film screaming for Baz Luhrmann. As for the thesps, slumming it on a Greek vacation, Brosnan's croaky voice is karaoke-charming, Streep gives a note-perfect, ham-fisted performance and the supporting players (Julie Walters and Christine Baranski) are the comic icing on an overbaked cake. Still, Mamma Mia! is good clean fun, even when it's not so good. Mamma Mia! opens today
