Cast: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard
Direction: Phyllida Lloyd
Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep) is hosting the wedding of her daughter Amanda (Amanda Seyfried) not knowing that the little imp has invited three of her prospective fathers to the wedding.
"It's a fantasy," Meryl Streep says in the 'Making of Mamma Mia!' featurette telling us about the three men who play the parts – Streep giggles as she takes the names – Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard.
Indeed, there could not have been a better way to describe this movie because fantasy is exactly what Mamma Mia is.
Adapted from the popular jukebox musical by the same name, Mamma Mia! uses the songs of ABBA, the Swedish pop group of the 70s (and 80s) and tells us one of the silliest but the cutest stories we've ever heard.
Donna is your typical leftover from the flower power generation, trying hard to make ends meet paying, as she says, for being a 'reckless s**t'. Yet there is something very endearing about her as she goes about trying to run a hotel that's coming apart.
So when she meets the three men she's slept with on the island, Donna isn't remotely pleased. She asks them to leave immediately. Of course none of them do and what follows is a roller coaster of a ride and 'a trip down the aisle that you will never forget'.
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The Bonus features in the disc include an insightful audio commentary with director Phyllida Lloyd, a deleted musical number The Name of the Game, deleted scenes, outtakes, The Making of Mamma Mia featurette, Anatomy of a Musical Number: Lay All Your Love on Me, Becoming a Singer featurette, A look inside Mamma Mia! Featurette, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! music video, Bjorn Ulvaeus cameo and subtitles in English, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.
Of these, it is the 'Making of' featurette that I love the most. It is informative, well shot, superbly edited and quite amusing.
In the featurette we are told that Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvares were somewhat averse to the idea of making a stage musical from their songs.
It took them some time get convinced before it first opened in West End in 1999.After that it traveled to the US, Australia and Canada and it was during one of these tours that Meryl Streep first saw it and sent a congratulatory note to the makers. So years later when she was approached to play Donna, the star agreed instantly!
Pierce Brosnan, too, has a rather touching story to narrate when he tells us that he was offered the film in the same week his father passed away.
In fact the entire 'Making of' featurette is filled with anecdotes funny and downright hilarious. Watch out for that part where Colin Firth tries so hard to dance! And watching him talk you can imagine just why he must have accepted the part of Darcy in BBC's Pride and Prejudice – he simply had to turn down the idea of dancing with Elizabeth Bennett!
But what takes your heart away is when you are shown that the entire idyllic villa in which the film is largely set is in fact a set! Don't miss this part, though it comes towards the very end.
The disc also has a section of Bjorn Ulvaeus' cameo but for some reason doesn't at all mention the one by Benny Andersson which is a brilliant camera moment during the Dancing Queen song.
Mamma Mia! uses 24 ABBA songs and shows just how a set of pre-released numbers set in the 70s and 80s be used to tell a contemporary tale.
Verdict: The back of the DVD cover reads: "Relive the music… the magic… and the memories." There could not have been a better way to put it across. Watch this one with your kids and chances are they'll become ABBA fans too.
Rating: 4/5
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