Mamma Mia- Stick to the stage

            Twenty year old Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) lives with her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) on a small Greek Island. Here Donna runs a hotel known as Villa Donna. Sophie plans to marry Sky (Dominic Cooper) and wishes to have her dad “give her away.” The only problem is, she doesn’t know who her father is.

            Sophie reads her mom’s old dairy and realizes that her father could be one of three men: Sam ( Pierce Brosnan), Harry ( Colin Firth), or Bill ( Stellan Skarsgard). Without letting her mother or fiancé know, Sophie invites all three men to her wedding. When the men arrive, Sophie hides them in an old goat house, where she explains to them that it was she who invited them, not Donna.

            When necessary repairs need to be done on the hotel, Donna looks in the goat house for supplies, where she then sees the three men. Seeing them is difficult for Donna and she asks them to leave. However, they decide to stay and they take up residence on Bill’s boat.

            Meanwhile, during Sophie’s bachelorette party, Donna and her two friends, Tanya (Chirstine Baranski) and Rosie ( Julie Walters) entertain the crowd by slipping back into their 1980’s persona as Donna and the Dynamo’s. During this time Sophie talks to each of the “dads” and realizes that she has quite the dilemma. Any one of them could be her father. Because of this, Sophie decides that her mother Donna should give her away instead. When the wedding is about to begin, Donna mentions the father issue and things start to unravel quickly. Sophie and Sky decide to postpone their wedding and sail off into the sunset. A wedding does take place however, but you will have to see the movie to find out who gets married.
           
            This was an interesting movie, which I enjoyed, but Mamma Mia seems better suited to a stage production. The scenery, which was shot in Greece, England and Laguna Beach California, was beautiful. While Mamma Mia is a good story, and the music by ABBA great, the movie itself was quite silly. The ending at least wasn’t predictable as we never found out who Sophie’s father was, and the wedding that took place was a surprise. ABBA songs were interspersed throughout the movie and included: Money, Money, Mamma Mia, Take A Chance on Me, Does Your Mother Know, SOS, Honey Honey, Dancing Queen and Winner Takes it All just to name a few. Mamma Mia is based on songs by the internationally popular group ABBA the Swedish band from the early 1970’s to the early 1980’s .Overall, not a great movie, but it was wonderful hearing all the great ABBA songs in a feel good movie which is suitable for the family.