Mamma Mia!

UK 2008, 108 minutes
Dir. Phyllida Lloyd
Rating: [PG]
Genres: Comedy / Musical, Romance

Feat. Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper

Aroview: A knowingly cheesy yet still irresistible movie version of the smash-hit stage musical about a girl trying to find her father before her wedding day, all played out to a bevy of ABBA's greatest hits.

With the pre-fab soundtrack, a Greek island setting, and a theme of wedding-day anxiety, this could hardly miss with mothers-and-daughters looking for escapist uplift. Manages to at least hint at the excitement of the stage show, though the mostly middle-aged karaoke versions of these pop standards ain't a patch on Anna and Frida's glamour and pipe-work. Highlights? The versatile Meryl Streep holds it all together (The Winner Takes it All), frumpy Julie Walters (Dancing Queen), a tone-deaf Pierce Brosnan (SOS), while Colin Firth, perhaps mercifully, doesn't even try...