Mamma Mia!

Dammit … I say, dammit! I was super stoked for this movie due to my love for all ABBA music. But, of course, good music can’t carry an entire picture, and this adaptation of the popular stage musical (of which I have never seen) is more irritating than toe-tapping. Now, it must be said that Meryl Streep is terrific in this film, as are Christine Baranski and Amanda Seyfried. But poor choreography and some terrible singing voices ruin the party. It doesn’t help that the story is just plain stupid. Young Sophie (Seyfried) is about to get married, but she never knew her father. After spying her mother Donna’s (Streep) diary, she discovers it could be one of three men (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard) and she invites them to the wedding. What follows is a lot of scenes with people running around in a manner that is far from organized and minimally entertaining. While Streep shines in all of her numbers—including a barn-burning “The Winner Takes it All”—folks like Brosnan manage to butcher the majestic ABBA. For me, this is one of the year’s biggest letdowns. Dammit, I say!