Wing & a Prayer Productions

I finally got around to watching 'Mamma Mia' a couple weeks ago.  I was quite keen to see it.  I'd heard lots of good things from those who'd seen it.  And I'm always keen to see a British film which has met with financial success (The patriot in me).

In other words, I went to see the film wanting to be positive.  I wasn't absolutely raring to watch it (unlike 'The Dark Knight' which I'd been itching to see and was, for me, the best film of 2008.  Not that I can say that I saw I huge amount of new releases last year) but I was keen and expected an enjoyable evening's viewing.

I was badly disappointed.  I got very bored.  Not until we were into the final half hour did I begin to get even vaguely interested.  I really could not see what all the fuss was about.  The characters are two-dimensional, the dialogue is amateurish and as for the plot we had it all in the first five minutes.  In the first scene we have explained to us that the young heroine is getting married, that she doesn't know who her real father is but is one of three contenders (It's pretty obvious she'll never find out who he is) and she's invited them all to the wedding.  However, it's behind her mum's back.  From this we can infer that the relationship between her mum and her old beaus is difficult and will take some working through.  And that is basically the plot. 

With this revealed there was absolutely nothing to hold me to the film there was really very little to hold me to the film bar some stunning shots of the Mediterranean and some Abba songs.  And if I really wanted to hear the latter I could have bought their 'Greatest Hits' album and spared myself the bits in between.

I appreciate that if you're a keen Abba fan the songs alone may have won you over.  I wouldn't put myself in this category, though I appreciate that they are well crafted pop songs.  But you need more than good songs to make a good film (and if the songs aren't original it says even less for the skill of the writers). 

I'm aware that, in my disgust, I may have have overlooked some scenes which deserved some merit (I confess I did rather enjoy the rendition of 'Take a Chance on Me' in the final few minutes of the film) but I'm afraid it really turned me off thoroughly.  It looked liked the cast had fun making the film, which is great for them-but that didn't translate into enjoyment for me.

Before anyone accuses me of being a bloke and therefore not 'getting it' I would say that I put this in the same category as 2007's 'Transformers'.  That was a film which, as a bloke, I was very eager to see and, equally, ended up bored; flashy robots, like seventies pop songs, don't, in my book, make up for poor script writing (though, if anything, I found the characters had slightly more depth in 'Transformers' and, though it was inevitable it would end in a shoot out, the plot was less predictable).

By contrast, this last weekend I rewatched the excellent 'Monsoon Wedding'.  Anyone planning writing any more wedding related films in the near future would do well to watch this again.

If you enjoyed 'Mamma Mia', good on you.  That it's earned money for the British film industry-fantastic.  But I shall be quite happy never to watch it again.