by Thomas Ferguson

Oh mamma! Why do you sing so much? Now, I don’t mind a good musical. There has been some top notch stage to screen flicks in recent years. The big difference between those gems and the new ABBA based musical Mamma Mia is that they were interesting.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a soon- to- be- bride, wants her father to give her away at her wedding ceremony, but there seems to be a bit of a problem. She has no idea who her real father is. Her father could be one of three guys her free-spirited mother Donna (Meryl
Streep) had “fun” with during the course of a romantic summer.

Sophie finds the names of the three lucky men in her mother’s diary and requests that they all attend. She feels this act of desperation could finally answer the question that has always plagued her.

Against her daughter’s plan, Donna does everything to persuade Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), Harry (Colin Firth), and Bill (Pierce Brosnan) to leave the Greek island she calls home. Aided by her two best friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walter), Donna tries to avoid her past by dealing with the present with song and dance. You know, how we all deal with our problems. The problem with that is the fact that she still has feelings for Bill and it’s obvious he still has feelings for her.

Like I said earlier, I like musicals, but this one just seemed to bore. I don’t know if it was the singing or the dancing, but this latest musical did not wow me like Chicago, Dreamgirls, or Hairspray.

There were some great number’s like; “Dancing Queen”, “Take a Chance”, “The Winner Takes it All” and “Lay Your Love on Me”, but a majority of the other numbers were  noisy and fairly dull.

Maybe if I were an ABBA fan I would have been more into this movie, but I can only mildly recommend it. Streep pulls off yet another brilliant performance and relative newcomer Seyfried really shines. She has a wonderful presence and an angelic voice.

By far, the most interesting voice belongs to Brosnan. The former James Bond needs to rethink singing in public. Not that he was horrible; it was just not up to par with his counterparts.

Mamma Mia was a hit with the audience, but not so much with me.