Mamma Mia!

Heyy,

So, I recently saw the new movie Mamma Mia! and I have to say I adored it. Then again who wouldn't love a movie of such upbeat songs? It felt like the slower songs held it back even, but that's just me. (I thought the same thing with Grease.)

Going into this, I decided to watch this only on the trailer. I had no previous knowledge of this movie, except that the A*Teens did a CD on it (which, I loved the A*Teens...) Anyhow, I thought the best voice was Amanda Seyfried. Meryl Streep did a fine job (But she's always brilliant =)) and as did her the actresses who played her two friends. As much as I love Colin Firth (ever since Bridget Jones), though, his voice made me cringe just a bit... Pierce did a rather nice job, but his last song was iffy...

Anyhow, I'll just start from the beginning.

The first real song is "Honey, Honey." (The beginning is her sending out the letters and then the fathers each making their way to the wedding.) I love that song now! Sophie (Amanda) has greeted her two best friends and told them about wanting her father to walk her down the aisle. And then she proceeds to tell them about the three men who might be her father, based on a diary she found from her mother's year of pregnancy. She believes it's Sam. "Honey, Honey" is her reading from the diary entries.
Hm... I saw this last week, so I'm not a hundred percent sure what exactly follow next. Just know that Donna's (Streep) friends arrive, one being totally posh and the other being eccentric. The song, "Money, Money, Money" is sung as Donna uncovers all the small things wrong with the hotel, like cracked floors and such. Also the three fathers travel to the island on Bill, one of the dad's boats. We learn that it was first Sam who she slept with, leaving her the next day for his fiance. He is the one she loved and broke up with. The other two were, basically, hookups.

Bill is to the far left (Stellan Skarsgard), Sam (Pierce Bronson) is in the middle, and Harry (Colin Firth) on the far right.
Anyhow, at first they decide to leave when realizing they had been tricked here, and Donna finds them by accident (leading to the song "Mamma Mia"). She then asks them to leave and returns to her room, crying.

Now, cue the most famous song of all "Dancing Queen." Here Donna's friends cheer her up by singing about the old days when they were "Donna & the Dynamoes." Meanwhile Sophie sees her fathers leaving and jumps after them. She then returns to shore after getting them to stay and meets her fiance, Sky. This leads into the steamy (w/o being corney) song "Lay All Your Love on Me." Then Sky is taken for his bachelor party.
Each party goes quite well. Donna & the Dynamoes sing "Super Trouper" at Sophie's bacholerette party. Meanwhile, somehow, the fathers get caught up in the mix of partially or fully drunken bacholerettes. The song "Gimme, Gimme" is sung, well played in the backround, while the girls chase the fathers around. Somehow, Sophie has accidentally gotten all three fathers walking her down the aisle. This leads to her becoming nervous and overwhelmed during the song "Voulez-Vous" and passing out.

Afterwards (or maybe the next day?), Donna talks to Sophie, assuming that she doesn't want to get married (as Sophie IS only twenty), angering Sophie who claims her mother was against this the whole time. She storms out, and Donna and Sam run into each other, leading to the song "S.O.S."

A funny break from the drama, Tanya (the posh, rich friend of Donna) is at the beach and hit on by one of the bartenders. She then sings the song "Does Your Mother Know?" It made me laugh and was cute.

A few more songs are sung, reminsicing about the past, etc. One of the touching ballads, "Slipping Through My Fingers" is sung as Donna helps Sophie prepare for her wedding, and realizes how her daughter seems to have grown up so quickly. Sophie asks Donna to walk her down the aisle. By the way, I am in love with Sophie's wedding dress and hair. It was so adorable!
As Donna sends Sophie off to be married, she is stopped by Sam who wants to talk to her. Then comes the song Meryl Streep is famed for, "The Winner Takes All." It was very touching, but, like I said, I thought the ballads slowed the movie down, so I didn't like either of them... But that's me who doesn't like ballads anyway.

Moving on...

Sophie is walkign down the aisle to be married, but alas is not. Through jumbled events (I'm sorry, I can't quite remember them all clearly) it is discovered that Sophie brought these three men to the island. The she says the phrase from the trailer, "I don't care if you've slept with HUNDREDS of men..." Haha, that was funny.
In the end, Sophie and Sky decide not to get married, but travel the world together instead. Sam proposes to Donna and they decide to get married instead. At the wedding reception, Rosie (Donna's other friend) becomes attracted to Bill, who shares who viewpoint on staying single, singing "Take a Chance on Me."

Thus, all ends happily with "I Have a Dream."

Over all, I adored this movie and thought it was so cute. I love the setting the best.

xoxo

S