Mamma Mia!

After the huge success (at least in the U.S.) of theatrical versions of popular musicals like "Hairspray" and "Chicago", another hugely successful stage play has now made it to the big screen: the ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!".

The film, like the musical, is set on the Greek island of Kalokairi. Here, Donna (Meryl Streep) runs the small Villa Donna hotel with her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and her fiancé Sky (Dominic Cooper). In recent years, there has not been much activity here, but these days the villa is upside down. Because the wedding of Sophie and Sky is imminent. While Sophie welcomes her two bridesmaids, Donna is looking forward to meeting her best friends Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski). What Donna doesn't suspect is that while she revels in happy memories of the past with her friends, the island is being fed three rather dark chapters from days gone by: Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard).

With all three men, Donna had an affair twenty years ago - and all three could be Sophie's father. The bride-to-be learned this by snooping through her mother's diary, and immediately invited the three men to her wedding - hoping to be walked down the aisle by her biological father. But until that happens, the potential fathers' visit to the small island unleashes a chaos of emotions, enriched with sunshine, love and a whole lot of music...

After the end of ABBA, the two male members of the band, Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus, enjoyed great success with the musical "Chess". So the idea was obvious to conjure up a musical out of the old ABBA hits as well. Anderson and Ulvaeus were not very keen on this idea at first, until Catherine Johnson presented her concept for the musical: not the story of the band should be brought to the stage, but an amusing mother-daughter story, wrapped in hits like "The winner takes it all", "I have a dream" and "Thank you for the Music". The two composers were thrilled and "Mamma Mia!" was born.

Since its premiere in 1999, 25 years after ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest, over 30 million people worldwide have seen the musical, 3.4 million of them in Germany alone. With this success, a cinema version was an obvious choice and so the realisation has been in the works for a long time. This is now coming to our cinemas under the direction of Phyllida Lloyd, who had already brought the musical to the stage in the USA. The cast is simply wonderfully chosen. Meryl Streep is convincing as the resolute Donna, both in acting and vocally. Her solo songs, especially the poignant version of "The winner takes it all", are among the very big highlights of the film. Amanda Seyfried also scores vocally, while her acting, of course, can't compete with that of her older colleagues.

Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard also get to warble a few ditties - and the result isn't really intoxicating. However, the gentlemen put so much joy and enthusiasm into their work that one forgives the few crooked notes with pleasure. That goes for everyone involved, by the way. The film may have its weaknesses, that's out of the question. Especially the scenes that were obviously shot in the studio disappoint purely visually compared to the moments staged on location in Greece. The story itself is extremely thin and predictable. But that doesn't change the fact that, for all its superficiality, the film is fun and in a good mood -- provided, of course, you like ABBA. Because if you don't like the quartet's music, you're in for a real treat here. Almost no dialogue lasts longer than three minutes before the next song is intoned. The new interpretations, which are blessed by a small guest appearance of the composers, are wonderfully produced and performed with a lot of joy. And really, that's all that matters.

"Mamma Mia!" is a nice movie musical, a sunny feel-good movie that should appeal primarily to female moviegoers. But also the gentlemen of creation, who are not deterred by a singing James Bond and dance behind closed doors to "Dancing Queen", can enjoy this brightly colored revue. Therefore, no great, sophisticated acting cinema, but a colorful bouquet of harmonious tunes, performed by good-humored actors. Worth seeing!

Original title: Mamma Mia!

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd

Length: approx. 109 min.

FSK: o. Al.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp