Nitpick: Meryl Streep is waaaay too old for the part. She’s nearly 60, which would put her in her late 30’s/early 40’s when she got pregnant with her now 20 year old daughter. Sorry, but if your parents kick you out of the house when you’re 20 because you’re knocked up, that’s one thing. But when you’re 40, it’s pathetic.
But Abba’s music is great. 
They way they had her moving around, It’s not she looked or acted like she was 60 in the movie. My wife and I were joking about how long it took to shoot some off those scenes, given the amount off rest they probably had to give Meryl Streep.
It was still a fun movie.
People didn’t sing along at ours but when she said “Do you want some more?”:
“Yes! Yes!”
I think that’s great in this day and age of hostile detent in public these days.
My soundtrack to the movie came today from amazon. Yay!
I liked it a lot, and will probably see it once more. The “far fetched” aspect didn’t bother me at all, it’s supposed to be a silly musical comedy of errors, which always involves a ridiculous premise. Although the audience was enthusiastic, they were not enthusiastic enough to sing or dance, even during the encore. I really think theaters should have a once a week showing with RHPS style audience participation, where singing and dancing are required, and dressing up is encouraged.
I haven’t seen the stage production so I can’t comment on that other than to say I’ve heard bits of the soundtrack and obviously some of the singing was better there. My Mom did see it and actually liked the movie more, mostly because she could make out the words better. I know there have been complaints about using the stage director for the movie since she didn’t have prior movie experience. But I thought most of the numbers were actually staged fairly well. Money Money Money was done particularly well cinematically wise, as were the Gimme scene where the bachelor party invades, the various dock dancing scenes, and the scene where the pavement cracks and the spring explodes. I thought the Dancing Queen scene could have been better serviced by it flashing back to them on stage, but they did that in the encore scene so that can be forgiven. The location and scenery were great. I find myself wondering if the Colin Firth gay thing and the older woman black guy romance were from the stage play or invented for the film.
As for the singing… great for the most part. Meryl’s first song was weak, but the rest of hers were good, and Winner Takes All was quite excellent. Sophie was great in all her parts. The company was good. The three fathers were very weak and in some cases almost painful to listen to. If not for their singing though, they would have been well cast. I wish they had found a way to use Fernando as an actual number rather than just having Streep hum it briefly, but otherwise I liked the song selection. Interestingly, some of ABBA’s songs that I really didn’t like, I did like here. The composer did a fine job of choosing which songs to use the original ABBA style music for and which ones to eliminate the synth pop.
Apparently it’s doing very well despite the reviews. Biggest opening for a musical.
To me that is the oddest thing about the whole film: I like ABBA songs now!
I’m going to see it again this afternoon. I hope I still feel the same way about it–sometimes seeing something twice makes me see all the flaws and weaknesses. Hell, I know they’re there, but I didn’t care the first time. I hope that remains so. It’s just so sunny and good hearted, criticism of it feels churlish to me (even when warranted).
I loved it. I second the sentiments about realisticness being an irrelevant criticism — musicals are so far from realistic in the first place. Cheesy? Over-the-top? Ya think? I like ABBA music a lot, but c’mon. A movie based on a musical based on ABBA songs, and you are expecting something not cheesy? It was beautiful, romantic, fun, interesting, twisty at the end, completely implausible, and a lovely departure from Hollywood fare. By far one of the things that makes it a success, IMO, is that it does not take itself too seriously whatsoever. But underneath it all, there are actually some good themes – examining why we do what we do, what we think we want, what we perceive that others’ expectations are of us and how we act in response, etc. I can see why many men would not like it that much – for sure it’s a chick flick. I don’t like guns and shooting and car wrecks, either. That’s why my husband went to Mummy 3? and I went to Mamma Mia and we met in the lobby. Yay, everybody’s happy.
Saw it, liked it, wasn’t crazy about it but it was cute and pleasant. I will say that the age thing was a major factor to why I didn’t like it more: while I lament the lack of employability of talented actresses over 50, and while Streep was less annoying than I usually find her and I’ve always liked Christine Baranski and I loved Julie Walters (probably my favorite performance in the movie) they were just too old for the parts they played; it would have worked better if they’d retconned it to establish that Mamma was in her 30s when she had the baby and broke up the group.
BTW, this is one of the biggest “be sure to stay for the credits” movies I’ve seen in years. You’ll miss a big singing number of both guys and gals if you don’t.
I was disappointed they never sang Fernando. I guess they thought they couldn’t improve on the Bea Arthur & Erik Per Sullivan dance to it on Malcolm in the Middle (YouTube).
I saw it during my hen do with my mum, MIL, SIL and bridesmaids, and that song Donna sings to her daughter had mum and I clinging to each other, sobbing.
It was tremendous fun, and had us all either laughing or crying all the way through, but it’s a woman’s film. Unless you’ve experience those very close female friendships, you’re just not going to get it.
I love Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Every second of it, beginning to end. I sing along. I laugh, I sigh. I cheer. It is an excellent movie.
Mamma Mia! is not. I’m willing to buy the plot. I’m easy that way. I love it when main characters burst into song - and I’m usually more than happy to see spontaneous choreography break out behind them.
I’m not willing to buy switching from stage-style dialogue to movie-style dialogue and back mid-scene. I need them to pick a style and go with it, at least until there’s a screen cut. There were too many girl-power scenes. Either the way they were written or the way they were sequenced made them feel redundant. A couple of the songs didn’t really have any place in the film other than “We cannot possibly have a musical with Christine Baranski and not have her sing. Give her a song.” Not all songs were worked very well into the movie. I felt like all of the B plots were underdeveloped and poorly executed. Maybe there was more in the stage play, but it didn’t make it to the film and was not satisfying. For example, the authors’ story had smidgens of a beginning and a definite ending, but no middle. Good froth would have given that story a middle. Good froth would have done a lot of things that this movie didn’t do.
I think there is potential for a good movie with that plot and using those songs, but this wasn’t it.
The scenery was gorgeous. I want to go to Greece now.
I loved it on stage in Toronto a few years ago, and loved it as a movie, too. I really appreciated the way they wove the story around the songs, or the songs into the story.
There are more references in the stage musical to Harry being gay that were cut from the film. He constantly mentions his “other half.” At first when I was watching the movie, I thought they had completely neutered that character and cut all reference to his being gay when they had him say he had no one in his life but his dogs, which really pissed me off, so I was glad when they did keep that in at the end at least.
I’ve seen the stage show and have the cast album so I already knew the plot and all that, so the silliness of it didn’t matter to me. It was just some good fluffy fun, which is exactly what it was supposed to be. However, I do really wish that they had cast people who could actually sing! The daughter was the only one who really sounded good. Meryl Streep was alright, but I’m used to those songs being such by much better singers than her, where they are actually able to hit & sustain the correct notes. And Pierce Brosnan cannot sing. At all. Which is bad when you’re starring in a musical. I agree with queenquimarie, I hate when they use big name Hollywood actors who only have passable voices rather than real singers from Broadway.
Oh, yes! She’s a real triple-threat…we saw her as the lead in the Kennedy Center production of Mame! a year or two ago and she was just perfect!
Those would have helped - because in the end when he announced it, it seemed to come out of nowhere, as did hot Greek guy. That B-plot would have been better had we seen more of either the references or HGG.
I thought it was great but it could have been improved if Colin Firth had been stripped naked during the bachelorette party. Mmm, naked Colin Firth…
I loved it! I have seen it twice now, I took my mum yesterday and went with my friend last week. We are going again next week. Dominic Cooper is just beautiful 
I have never liked Abba, and definitely thought I wouldn’t like it…it is now my favourite film!!
Saw this last night with Pepper Mill and MilliCal. (Pepper gets to explain the double entendrs to our 11 year old. But then, they’ve been watching desperate Housewives together. Maybe she doesn’t need explanations)
I liked it. I haven’t seen the stage show (I understand they killed some numbers from the stage version, and added one song), but I’m always interested in the way they often “opemn up” a claustrophobic stage production to a movie setting, and I thought they did a good job here.
Some comments, though:
1.) I agree that the temporal thing is screwed up. The old photos of Meryl Streep and her beaus are clearly late sixties, early 70s at best. The movie’s contemporary (all those lines about setting up an internet site), so the daughter ought to be, like, 35 or so. Lots of other things – clothing and hair styles, dance moves – recall times in between. It’s probably best not to think about this too much.
2.) There seem to be an awful lot of non-Greeks on this Greek island. In fact, the Greek folks seem to be relegated to the background. I’m glad they gave them singing parts, though. It adds to the surreality.
3.) So it turns out at the end that one of the prospective Dads is gay. In the film, this seems to come out of nowhere. Apparently in the play the groundwork is laid a bit better. But you’re still left going “What?” This seems not to have been handled well.
I liked the last 1/3 of the film. The first parts were just terrible. I agree with most of the comments made here. It kept going between a stage-type performance and a movie-type performance. Some of the songs just really weren’t any good. Most of the acting was ok, Streep was for the most part ok, but the one scene when she ran crying and threw herself on the bed was just terrible.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Brosnan sounded so bad. Just about anyone should be able to sound better than that with some voice lessons and a professional sound studio. So either they wanted him to sound terrible, or because he’s already trying to speak without his accent it makes him sound flat all the time.
For the most part I enjoyed it. The last third of the movie really did make up for the painful start.
I liked the last 1/3 of the film. The first parts were just terrible. I agree with most of the comments made here. It kept going between a stage-type performance and a movie-type performance. Some of the songs just really weren’t any good. Most of the acting was ok, Streep was for the most part ok, but the one scene when she ran crying and threw herself on the bed was just terrible.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Brosnan sounded so bad. Just about anyone should be able to sound better than that with some voice lessons and a professional sound studio. So either they wanted him to sound terrible, or because he’s already trying to speak without his accent it makes him sound flat all the time.
For the most part I enjoyed it. The last third of the movie really did make up for the painful start.
The play was written in the late 90s by Catherine Johnson, so I think that it is supposed to be set in that time–which makes the pics of Donna and her beaus not all that outlandish. It might have helped to have some reference to a date in the movie.
I agree the gay romance story line is weak in the film (haven’t seen the stage production). I also agree that Brosnan can’t sing, but to me that adds a taste of realism to musicals as a whole. I get tired of people belting out songs and wailing away like they do today. He is not as bad a singer as the Swedish guy who plays Sophie’s travel journalist “father”.