Mamma Mia!

I love musicals, ABBA, Meryl Streep, and a lot of the character actors appearing in supporting roles, but Mamma Mia! is, without a doubt, dreadful. Much of the blame goes not on the vague sketch of a plot, plenty of musicals have stories that merely exists as a threadbare setup between songs, but on Phyllida Lloyd’s amateur hour direction. The film is edited to shreds mistaking frantic cuts for energy, and an inability to understand that merely repeating the choreography from the Broadway stage for the camera is not successful staging. Some of the cast seems game if a bit lost, Streep in particular appears to be over-doing it and Colin Firth is clearly having the time of his life, but a lot of the film feels lost at sea, like Pierce Brosnan’s winced performance or the fact that several of these stars can’t sing. Mamma Mia! becomes almost enjoyable for laughably bad and poorly made it is. Like it nearly rounds the corner to so bad it’s good territory before veering wildly off the road and driving off on the Greek cliffs prominently featured in the film. It’s hard to begrudge a screen diva her good time, but Streep’s choice to make this really tries your patience.