"Mamma Mia" - the Movie

I have a background in Theatre Ed, and enjoy stage productions very much. But many Broadway plays, especially revivals of old ones, have turned really cheap-looking and trite these days. For all the new innovative dancing we see on TV shows like "So You Think You Can Dance", the choreography in staged musicals is still a throwback to the fifties and sixties. Although I will always love "West Side Story" and understand that some choreography should remain compatible with its setting, let's move past the "jazz hands", shall we?

"Mamma Mia", although a new stage production at the time I saw it in Las Vegas, fits this category well. It was strictly Broadway corny, which comes across great onstage, where the audience sits further away. But the "corn" doesn't translate so well to the 2008 screen movie. The acting is over the top, too frantic and too wide-eyed for the close-up cameras. This may have been intentional - some may like it and others will say leave it on a stage.

The pasty-faced, paunchy Stellan Skarsgard and Colin Firth have never looked worse, (although refreshing to see Skarsgard take a stab at comedy) and I suspect they were told to gain a few pounds for the movie so they could look more sufficiently middle-aged. Pierce Brosnan looks OK but also has a surprising bit of pot belly. With all this skin hanging out through their open shirts, I was thankful for a well-sculpted middle aged husband to go home to!

Christine Baranski is corny to the obnoxious, but Julie Walters carries her comedy role off a bit less heavy-handed. I liked the girl I saw onstage as the daughter more than this Amanda Seyfried - but I must admit, Meryl Streep just can't stop charming audiences no matter what she does.

The highlights for me were the gorgeously breathtaking Greek setting, and Streep's version of the song "The Winner Takes it All". As I understand it, everyone did their own singing (which was obvious in the case of the awful de-tuxedoed Brosnan). Nobody's better than Streep at drama, but if she is really the one who hit and sustained all these notes, it was an impressive rendition indeed. I finally felt vindicated for spending my $7.50. And that was the matinee price!

The movie could have done well without the cheap, gratuitous "must have some tasteless sexual innuendo" beach scene between Baranski and a young male dancer who turns up out of nowhere for 2 musical numbers. Of course, there is already the movie's main theme of Streep's character not knowing which of 3 men is her daughter's father, and a theme of yet another sexual nature (I won't spoil the surprise - it's commonplace in entertainment today). But this particular Baranski scene is totally way too raunchy for a PG-13 rating. I wanted to bathe and wash out my mouth.

Lovers of cornball comedy, ABBA and the Grecian landscape will go for this one. Be sure to watch past the credits and see the lead players make fools of themselves - as if they hadn't already! The rest of you may want to wait for the home DVD or see the "Mamma Mia" stage play instead.