Mamma Mia

I happend to catch a showing of Mamma Mia last night as a way to combat my extreme desire to try to catch a showing of Dark Knight (I believe the whole city of Boston was sold out last night!). As a fan of musicals I am always quite skeptical of going to see anything with so much hype surrounding it. And boy am I glad I did...

The movie is based on the hit musical that has taken America (and the world) by storm for the pass few years. I haven't gotten a chance to see the musical so this review is completely unbiased in terms of comparisons. The movie follows the story of a young woman named Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried) who lives on a Greek Island with her mother Donna (played by Meryl Streep). Donna runs and owns a somewhat floundering hotel on the island. Sophie plans on getting married shortly and desperately wishes to have her father walk her down the aisle. The only problem is she doesn't know who her father is. After reading her mother's old diaries Sophie narrows down the possibilites to three men (played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard) and invites all three to the wedding. This of course causes many complications and hilarious scenes interspersed between musical ABBA numbers.

I think the big draw of this movie for me was the sheer hilarity of the situation and the willingness of the actors to make fools of themselves. The music was terrific and the plot just outrageous enough to keep one entertained for the two hours. Watching the actors (especially the guys) sing was absolutely hilarious, the audience was laughing through the whole movie! I highly reccomend seeing this movie, especially for those fans of the musical (why not), fans of ABBA (you just should), fans of musicals in general (its worth it), and those who appreciate watching grown man do disco in outrageous costumes for laughs. Make sure you stay through the credits for the two musical numbers by the cast! (image from www.wikipedia.com)