Mamma Mia! is uplifting, exhilarating and irresistibly joyful. The story is silly, but I still haven't had so much fun watching a film for quite some time.
Based on the hit musical which has been performed in 170 cities and seen by more than 30 million people, it was bound to be a winner in cinemas. The film version is a different kind of experience, of course, but it benefits in a number of ways: Its setting on a sun-soaked Greek island creates a wonderful context that theatre can never reproduce; the stellar cast is, on the whole, excellent (especially Meryl Streep and the irrepressible Julie Walters); and cinema is able to focus audience attention and show reactions in close-up, avoiding the need for the dialogue to carry all the emotion.
The task of constructing a story to act as a vehicle for around twenty ABBA songs must be extremely difficult. Writer Catherine Johnson has, however, cleverly created a context for many of the biggest hits. Having 'Waterloo' during the final credit sequence is completely gratuitous, but it clearly couldn't fit anywhere else, and by that point, the audience want nothing more than a chance to clap - or sing - along.
Many of the songs, written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus tell, or at least suggest, a narrative, and it was this theatricality that first inspired producer Judy Craymer to make a musical around them.
The result was a story that Craymer and Johnson, along with director Phyllida Lloyd, believed 'had universal resonance, with an appeal that crossed age, gender and national boundaries.'
Judy Craymer remarks, 'Whoever the audience is, whatever age the audience is, they see themselves up on the stage in some form. They seem to totally immerse themselves in the experience. The songs have a magical and timeless quality.'
Turning this theatrical box office success into a movie was an obvious move. But it wasn't until 2003 that Craymer felt the time was right, and the trio of women set to work adapting it for the big screen, working closely, as before with Andersson and Ulvaeus.
The cast all appear to be enjoying themselves immensely. Stellan Skarsgård commented on his first time dancing in a film, 'I enjoyed it enormously and tried to have as much fun as I could. The whole experience has been totally liberating. All you can do is enjoy it and go for it.'
The end result has been one of those few films that draw the audience into some kind of active participation: clapping, singing, even dancing.
The film is a love story, but it's about family love and close friendship as much as romance. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is about to marry Sky (Dominic Cooper), the love of her life. They plan to stay on the Greek island where she lives with her mother, Donna (Meryl Streep) who struggles to run a small hotel on her own. However, Sophie has one regret: her father won't be walking her down the aisle as she doesn't know who he is.
So she sneaks a look at her mother's diary to find out, and is taken aback to discover that her mother had slept with three different men around the time she was conceived: any one of them could be her father. She secretly sends invitations to the wedding to Sam (Pearce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård), ostensibly from her mother. She is naively convinced that once she sees them, she will instantly recognise her father.
