Mamma Mia
4 Lloyds – Family-Friendly
PG-13 for some sex related comments.
Meryl Streep plays a single mother of a bride-to-be who never met her father. After finding her mother’s diary, the daughter invites three possible paternal candidates to her wedding in hopes of discovering who her dad is. But, her plan quickly turns to confusion and chaos triggering the performance of 22 ABBA hits, including Dancing Queen, Take A Chance on Me, and The Winner Takes It All. The big screen Mamma Mia is based on the incredibly successful musical that played in 130 cities around the world, and grossed $1.6 billion dollars since the opening in 1999.
Who knew Meryl Streep could sing!
To be honest with you, Meryl Streep is one of those actresses I can take or leave. Sometimes I really like what she does. Other times it looks like she’s on autopilot moving somewhat glassy eyed through her performances. Such is not the case with Mamma Mia. If anything, her role in this flick reveals how versatile she can be as an actress. Pierce Brosnan on the other hand, while he does put in his usual suave and debonair performance, is somewhat out of his element when it comes to singing. But, I still applaud him for his role. I must also say his performance of SOS should at least give him some kind of an award for the best-off-key-performance of a song.
We are calling Mamma Mia family-friendly. But remember, this is a PG-13 movie, not a G rated movie. It carries the PG-13 rating with a description of for some sex-related comments. It’s true, those comments are there. But, we’ve seen worse in PG movies! From a moral standpoint, some may question the fact that Streep’s character had sex with three different men in one summer and has no idea who the dad is. However, when you look beyond those elements, they quickly fall into the background when you take into consideration the laughs, the outlandish costumes, and the great music. For the most part, while at times the ABBA songs seem sprinkled throughout in a random order, Mamma Mia is a blast. Also, if you’re not careful, you may even learn a thing or two about true love, and what really matters when it comes to discovering who you are.
If you’re a fan of the Broadway show, you’re bound to like the big screen version too. If you’ve never seen the Broadway show, you might want to take it in after seeing the big screen version of Mamma Mia.
Mamma Mia opened last week and pulled in approximately $29 million dollars. Not bad considering it opened on the same weekend as the box office record smasher The Dark Knight. I don’t know if the singing Meryl Streep can bump the Caped Crusader from the number one spot this weekend. But I do know in some cities, the Mamma Mia movie ticket is about as hot as the Mamma Mia Broadway ticket with many shows sold out through the weekend.
Dr. Rus has 30+ years experience in the field of communication. He takes this experience, and his passion to encourage others to positively effect their environment, when providing insight and movie reviews. 
