Mamma Mia is an ABBA Yabba Good Time

* * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Can Pierce Brosnan sing? Whew, no. But neither can some of the other cast members in this
high energy tribute to the music of ABBA. But that doesn't stop them from throwing themselves wholeheartedly into their performances as a wedding party on a Greek island.

A young American girl is the daughter of a single woman who runs a hotel on a picturesque island in Greece. Twenty-plus years ago, the mother had three affairs in one summer and any of those men could be the father of her girl. Now the girl is getting married and has sent invitations under her mother's name to all three hoping to find her father and the man who can walk her down the aisle. The men are unaware of who really sent them the invite or the reason they are really there. The mother is oblivious to the whole charade and is more worried about her daughter being too young to marry.

Stories used to mean more in musicals and carry more weight (like The Sound of Music), but a frivolous story doesn't matter when the music is this good. ABBA is often called a guilty pleasure, but I think that's unfair. Their songs are joyous and why should something that makes you feel happy and doesn't hurt anyone else also make you feel guilty? I don't own their records and I don't play them in jukeboxes, but I'm happy when someone else does.

That said, this movie is an interesting way to make a musical. Unlike the old days when musical performers were trained to become actors, like Fred Astaire, now the movie musical is such a rare phenomenon that you have to hope that traditional movie stars can also sing and dance. Sometimes it works (Chicago) sometimes it doesn't (Painted Wagon). This movie leans a little bit more toward Painted Wagon. There are several songs where I winced when the lead actor was singing and was looking desperately for the background players (the local Greek workers) to join in as the chorus. The chorus of no-names saved many a song from being butchered. Meryl Streep is a decent singer, but in this movie she sounded like Beverly Sills. When Pierce Brosnan starts singing S.O.S. on his own, I heard some chuckles in the audience but muffled my own, in hopes that this was going somewhere. Streep saves him in the duet.

But this movie is obviously not about musical proficiency but the joy of the music. Which you can see in the exuberant way the cast members belt out their songs and dance gayly. And I mean gayly. When women are dancing in such a flighty way that you say to yourself, "that's even too gay for them," you know you are going to have to pull the shirt out of your pants. Why? Because when things start to become too embarrassing for me my butt scrunches up and sucks the shirt tale right up with everything else. I saw this movie by myself and was able to enjoy it in anonymity, but if I was with a friend there were times when the waves of Douche Chills would have hit me like a tsunami.

But this movie was not made for me, but for young girls and their 50+ year old grandmas who took them. I heard them singing along, so I'm sure they've seen Wednesday matinees of the Broadway musical in the city together.

The Freditor

Here are some of the songs, some of which I never heard of before:

1. Dancing Queen
2. Knowing Me, Knowing You
3. Take A Chance On Me
4. Mamma Mia
5. Lay All Your Love On Me
6. Super Trouper
7. I Have A Dream
8. The Winner Takes It All
9. Money, Money, Money
10. S.O.S.
11. Chiquitita
12. Fernando
13. Voulez Vous
14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
15. Does Your Mother Know
16. One Of Us
17. The Name Of The Game
18. Thank You For The Music
19. Waterloo