Review of Mamma Mia! (2008) by Markb. — 07 Aug 2008

What do ABBA's song of the same name, Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run", The Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby", Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and Frank Sinatra's "My Way" have in common? All of the above are famous enough that it would be forgivable to assume that they were all Number One hits, but in fact none of the above records even made Billboard's Top 20 when released! (In fact, B.

J. Thomas's now-obscure cover version of "Don't Worry Baby" actually charted higher than the original!) in ABBA's case, "Mamma Mia" became the best known #32 peaker of all time largely because it became the title song of the phenomenally popular stage musical based on the international 1970s and 80s pop group's catalog.

(A musical that's set, by the way, on a Greek isle, with the title tune an Italian phrase written and sung by a Swedish act. Go figure.) The movie version (and, by association, the play) are at something of a disadvantage because by nature they lack a major component that makes most of ABBA's work so catchy, distinctive and endearing--those accents on the records are so dadgum cute.

But there are plenty of compensations, chiefly Meryl Streep's joyous, uninhibited acting and singing (which should once and for all put to rest the still all-too-common misconception that Streep's performances are all technique and no soul); as the middle-aged mother of the bride whose three former lovers (and her daughter's potential fathers) show up as unexpected wedding guests, Streep bravely and proudly shows her age with no heavy makeup, surgery or Vaseline on the camera, and her rendition of "The Winner Takes It All" (the one ABBA tune that takes itself way too seriously,and is therefore their worst hit) turns it into a showstopper.

She gets delightful support from Stellan Skarsgaard, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski (this generation's Eve Arden) and the green-eyed heartstealer Amanda Seyfried as the bride-to-be.

As for Pierce Brosnan, his attempts to belt it out are so endearingly game that let's just say that as singing Bonds go, Sean Connery in Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People had far more golden pipes and leave it at that.

Even the occasional clunkiness that almost inevitably afflicts nearly all outdoor-set movie musicals that aren't Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or The Sound of Music (e.g. Doctor Doolittle, Man of La Mancha, Paint Your Wagon, etc.

) adds to this movie's charm. It's hard not to admire Mamma Mia's nerve in wedging two dozen ABBA songs into the plot, and with less predictability than you'd expect; if you think you know what context "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" will fit in, you're probably only sort of half right.

This is the ONE summer 2008 blockbuster besides Sex and the City that everyone automatically knows in advance whether they'll stand in line for or run far and fast from, but where you stand will depend on your affection for hook-promiscuous 1970s schlock-pop (I love most of that stuff).