The sway of Abba’s ‘I have a dream’ highlights the beautiful starlit sky of a small Greek island. This is the spectacular opening of Mamma Mia!, the new film adaptation of the Broadway smash. And for those who’s reaction is Musical? No Way!, I’d say give this one a go and you may be surprised. The plot is relatively simple… a young girl, Sophie, is getting married and wants her father to ‘give her away’. The only problem is, there’re three to choose from – two of which are the well know Pierce Brosnan, (James Bond,) and Colin Firth, (Mr Darcy.) Her mother’s diary leads Sophie to secretly invite them all along to the big day. Queue mayhem and confusion. We follow Sophie on her journey of discovery with plenty of drama, dance and Abba inspired singsong along the way. The all star cast, lights up the screen with quirky characters and corny, but hysterical dance routines. There’s little to fault in the feel-good Mamma Mia! Amanda Seyfried (Sophie) sheds her air-head ‘Mean Girls’ character Karen, beautifully, but you may want to cover your ears when Pierce Brosnan bursts into a duet with Meryl Streep, (who has a surprisingly good voice - Meryl not Pierce.) His forced, unnatural tone stands out, begging the question, should popularity have been used over talent for the criteria of a musical?

Otherwise, the musical element provides a generally warm and upbeat vibe. And unless you can’t cope with Abba in particular, which is constant, even the most anti-musical film buff with love it. Cleverly some of the original Abba lyrics were tweaked to the plot. This escaped me and may do others, but in hindsight it definitely fell like Abba was made to tell this story. The ending isn’t as predictable as you may presume and it’s definitely a film you could watch again and again, although some believe the Broadway musical to have the edge. Check out the end credits too when the men whip on some sequins and wiggle their hips for you – absolutely hilarious!

8/10 Dancing Queens

By Jessica Daly
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