.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

My research for the musical film Mamma Mia! based on hit songs by the 1970's mega group ABBA started about seven years ago when I traveled to the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto to see the theatrical stage production. My experience with live theatre up to this point was watching my nephews and nieces do Christmas pageants at the local community hall. But there I was decked out in clothes usually reserved for Easter church visits or funerals sitting in a wonderful auditorium with a couple of hundred strangers.

The experience was nothing short of breathtaking. Usually someone reserved to sitting alone at the back of a darkened theatre watching a film I was out of my element. But before the opening number was over, my feet were tapping and by the end I was celebrating with the rest of the audience dancing in the aisles like a drunk Kevin Bacon a la Footloose at the prom.

Last year when I heard that Meryl Streep was starring in a theatrical retelling of the stage production, I made sure I got tickets when in Las Vegas to re-associate myself with the story and characters. The second time around lost none of the performance's energy and I was leery yet pumped for the big screen adaptation.

This 'pump' was deflated slightly when the cast details were revealed. Colin Firth? Pierce Brosnan? Really? The thoughts of James Bond belting out a tune played at just about every wedding I have ever attended did not sound like the most brilliant of casting choices.

But what the hell. 'Why not?' I told myself as I ushered in for the screening.

My fears were soon realized.

Mamma Mia! tells the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) who lives on a Greek Island with her mother Donna (Streep) and is preparing to get married. Never knowing who her true father is, Sophie reads Donna's diary and determines that it can be one of three possible males. There's Harry 'Headbanger' Bright (Colin Firth), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Sam (Pierce Brosnan). All three were with Donna during a one month span and all three have romantic entries in the diary that conclude with a 'Dot, dot, dot'.

Sophie invites all three to the wedding under false pretences hoping to find her biological father and as luck would have it, all three show up together to share in the nuptials. For the remainder of the film we watch as Sophie questions each of the men while Donna deals with the emotional toll of three ex-boyfriends showing up the day before the happiest moment in her daughter's. There to support Donna are her two best friends Tanya and Rosie (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters) who have also travelled back to Greece for the festivities.

What ensues is an fun filled adventure guided by the songs of ABBA as love is found by almost all those within a 100 mile span of the island.

Mamma Mia! has a wonderful story as told by the ABBA lyrics that play better in their original verse than most of the dialogue that surround the ditties. The unfortunate part is that the actors chosen for each of the roles were so weak vocally (exceptions to Baranski and Seyfried) that at times, it is almost unwatchable as you want to turn your head in embarrassment for the individual singers.

Streep has done some singing on screen before. Ironweed and most recently, A Prairie Home Companion had the multiple Academy Award winner belting out tunes, so we at least knew that she could carry a song. The unfortunate part is that the ABBA songs are so full of life and flavor that Streep just can't match the energy that was so marvelously cast in the leads of the stage productions.

But she at least didn't embarrass herself. Can't say the same for Brosnan and Firth. Their attempts weren't exactly the sound a tortured cat might make, but I am not suggesting that it was much better either. Their lack of range took away from a film that was building momentum when either of them were not opening their mouths to burst into song.

Aside of the singing pitfalls, Mamma Mia! the film version just didn't match the theatrical in its attempts to project a strong story back to the paying patrons. Relationships forged in the final chapters of the film were done without creating any real believable premise in the previous 70 minutes that would make these unions seem in any form credible. The relationship that results between Bill and Rosie was far more believable on stage whereas in the film, it just seems to jump up and happen.

Mamma Mia! for all intentions is a worthy film if not a good one. It was a bold undertaking for all those involved and even though most of them failed, I applaud them for trying. I just wish the trying didn't mean me forking over hard earned cash to watch them implode.