Mamma Mia!

New review from The Movie Snob

Mamma Mia! (B). I saw the traveling production of the musical Mamma Mia! when it came through Dallas a few years ago, and I was underwhelmed by everything except the volume, which was deafening. As you already know if you have the slightest interest in this musical/movie, it is a very thin plot stretched over a musculature of songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA. I like ABBA's music (as do many others--Bono included, if I remember correctly), but I did not like the musical. The movie version, however, worked for me. Maybe it actually helped to have people who are not professional singers doing the singing. Maybe it helped to be able to see what was going on, which I couldn't when I was sitting in the back of balcony at Fair Park Music Hall. Meryl Streep (Death Becomes Her) sings reasonably well and looks like she's having a lot of fun. The ingenue (Amanda Seyfried, Mean Girls) who plays her daughter is pretty and ingenuous. Colin Firth (Bridget Jones's Diary) is pretty much always good. And poor Pierce Brosnan (Evelyn)! Watching him strain to get the words of S.O.S. out is worth the price of admission. (He made a good James Bond, but he can not sing.) I feel safe in saying this one is for ABBA fans only.