Resistance is futile

 

 

 ‘Mamma Mia!’
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Cast: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried
Rating: PG-13
Grade: 4 Globes

Let’s get this out of the way: In the middle of planning her wedding, young Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who never knew her father, sneaks into her mother’s diary and discovers she has three possible dads. (Don’t judge, people.)

She tracks them down and invites them to the wedding. They all show up. Then people sing lots of Abba songs.

“Mamma Mia!” is ridiculous, occasionally insulting to the intelligence and — no matter how hard you try to fight it — fun as hell. After all, if you don’t get some sort of enjoyment out of watching Meryl Streep (yes, that Meryl Streep) do jumping jacks on a bed while singing “Dancing Queen,” you’re just lying to yourself. Stop lying. In her most bizarre career choice since “Death Becomes Her,” Streep plays the mother of the bride. She is buoyant, hammy and possibly drunk throughout “Mamma Mia!” — and as in “The Devil Wears Prada,” the movie would probably fall apart without her.

But the best surprise is the way the rest of the cast — Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski — steps up behind Streep. No one in this film does paycheck work. The older actors all understand the absurdity of the situations they’re placed in, but never play it with a sly wink.

“Mama Mia!” is what “Sex and the City” should have been: a summer chick flick thats fun, strange and just plain good enough to expand beyond it’s narrow target audience.