Salt Lake Tribune Review
The mark of a great actor isn't just what she does with excellent material, but whether she can turn a mediocre role into something memorable.
By that reckoning,
Meryl Streep again proves her greatness in Mamma Mia!, because she enlivens this creakily constructed musical.
Streep is radiant as Donna Sheridan, a onetime wild child running a dilapidated hotel on a sun-drenched Greek island - and nervously preparing for the wedding of her daughter, Sophie (charmingly played by Big Love's
Amanda Seyfried), and the hunky Sky (
Dominic Cooper, from The History Boys). Sophie has discovered the names of Donna's three former lovers - Sam (
Pierce Brosnan), Harry (
Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgrd) - and has secretly invited them to the wedding in hopes of discovering which one is her father.
Donna reacts by doing what everyone on this Greek island does: She sings her heart out to the songs of the chart-topping Swedish group ABBA. She tells her old friends Tanya (
Christine Baranski) and Rosie (
Julie Walters) about the hotel's financial woes to the tune of Money, Money, Money. She confronts her old feelings for the three men with Mamma Mia and sings of her liberated past as a Dancing Queen.
Streep is in good voice. No surprise, since she sang well in Postcards From the Edge and A Prairie Home Companion. Besides, this woman comes prepared, and to act with a singing voice is little different from acting with an accent. When she tackles a ballad like The Winner Takes It All, sung as a mournful kiss-off to an old lover, she delivers it with a passion Celine Dion would envy.
The women keep up well with Streep - Seyfried is charming in the ingnue role, Baranski has a fun time with Does Your Mother Know? and Walters (Mrs. Weasley from the Harry Potter films) steals the finale. The menfolk are left in the dust, particularly Brosnan, whose thin voice strains as he tries to belt out S.O.S.
Straining even harder are director
Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter
Catherine Johnson, the creative team who first put Mamma Mia! onstage in 2001. They're new to movies and make the critical mistake of not adapting the story to fit the screen. The enterprise feels stagebound, with unflattering lighting choices, dead spots between musical numbers and show-stoppers that never get started again. Without Streep front and center, this Mamma Mia! wouldn't be worth taking a chance on.
Sean P. Means can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602.
The rundown: Meryl Streep, as a former wild child prepping her daughter's wedding and confronting three exes, is what makes this ABBA-filled musical worth the ride. 108 minutes. (SPM)
Synopsis: Donna, an independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, is about to let go of Sophie, the spirited daughter she's raised alone. For Sophie's wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends--practical and no-nonsense Rosie and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tonya--from her one-time backing band, Donna and the Dynamos. But Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own. On a quest to find the identity of her father to walk her down the aisle, she brings back three men from Donna's past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited 20 years earlier. Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities.
