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Letter: 'Mamma Mia!' was a disappointment


Published: July 22, 2008

To the editor:

I love ABBA songs. Or so I thought. Then I went to see the movie "Mamma Mia!" I realize I only like the ones I know, which are about five of them.

Plus, they left out one of my favorites, "Fernando." Couldn't they have named one of the potential dads Fernando, then sung about him?

Well I realized too that I like ABBA songs because ... ABBA sings them. The songs never would have become such big international hits if, say, the cast of "Everybody Loves Raymond" sang them.

Or imagine taking tunes sung by The Carpenters and having the ladies from "The View" sing them. Although I did hear Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway in "Forum" years back, which proves my point. (Get ready, as she will appear in upcoming production of "Xanadu" on Broadway.)

Meryl Streep did a good job singing, as did the actress playing her daughter and some others. But Pierce Brosnan sounded like the recording was on the wrong speed. And his strained, red-faced expressions made him look like he was either constipated or passing a kidney stone. And I'm really not joking about this.

And for such beautiful scenery, the color of the movie was so often very garish — like an old postcard that begins to turn yellow. For being on such a beautiful island with lots of sky and water, much of the film seemed claustrophobic, as there were too many close-ups and many scenes were filmed in tiny rooms.

I was also annoyed that almost all of the rooms were quite messy. Beds were always unmade, with stuff thrown around. Considering there was to be a wedding in 24 hours, it looked like slobs lived there. How can you focus on "Dancing Queen" when you're expecting to see Oscar Madison from "The Odd Couple" come into the scene and throw a newspaper or banana peel on the floor?

The dance sequences made me feel as if I needed Dramamine. The camera shots never lasted more than a few seconds, so by the time your eye focused on something , it changed. The poor dancers never got to show their stuff, as you only seemed to see one arm go up in a dance routine, then it switched to some other shot, making you wonder if the arm ever went down.

The five or six stereotypical Greek women who kept popping their heads in various scenes and songs seemed like lost souls left over from the movie "Evita," only dressed in a different time period.

I was hoping the story line, which involves finding out which of the three men Streep dated was the father of her child, would speed up. It made me wish there was an ABBA song about a DNA test.

I thoroughly expected to enjoy this movie, as I love Meryl Streep, Greece and the ABBA music that I know. I was shocked that I was rather bored at times and annoyed at the same time.

Why do we accept subpar singers in movie musicals? Imagine watching a baseball movie with an actor who can't swing a bat or catch a fly ball? That would never be allowed to go on the screen.

Even though there were some bright spots, by the end of the movie I was hoping for someone in the movie to say "ABBA-cadabra" and make everyone disappear.

ANDREW DISKES, owner/artistic director

Neverland Theatre

Hamilton

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