What Do The Critics Say?

"The movie was a great translation of the stage show onto the big screen. I’m definitely very excited about a soundtrack for the movie, which is going to sound far superior to the London cast album. I can’t wait to buy it, and I also can’t wait to see the movie again." Ryan Cameron RYAN'S INCREDIBLE WORLD "Christine Baranski energises Does Your Mother Know while Julie Walters fires up her panto-shtick with Take A Chance On Me." Colin Fraser MOVIEREVIEW "I got to go to a screening of Mamma Mia (movie) in NYC tonight. Most of the songs from the show are there, one new one added at the end. The acting is fine, Meryl Streep was great. Colin Firth is adorable. I did enjoy the big dance numbers like Dancing Queen, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Voulez Vouz (no idea how to spell it), Take a Chance on Me." BROADWAY WORLD "I never saw the staged musical but when I was young I was a massive Abba fan. I was unsure how Meryl Streep could sing and dance and do something like this but the lady never ceases to amaze me. Julie Walters is, as usual, remarkable as Rosie and while Meryl reeks of another Academy Award Julie wafts of Oscar for a supporting role. Christine Baranski is smoldering in this and a great comedic actress. In one scene she dances and sings her way through a bunch of hot men much younger than her, she tore the screen up. Pierce had the most male singing and just gets by." SALTY POPCORN "Meryl leads a pretty eclectic mix of talent, including Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Christine Baranski. The energy they put into the singing and dancing defied their age. It was pretty amazing to see Meryl sing and dance thru every scene. I swear the movie actually makes you feel like you went on a trip to the Greek Island afterwards." AIN'T IT COOL REVIEWS "I've got to say, I'm in a very small minority in this, because everybody in that cinema the other night loved it and I sat there thinking the choreography is appalling in this. It was awful. The design of the costumes was awful. I mean and I actually found a lot of it cringe-making. I think it's a very clodhopperish affair, this one?" Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES "Just as last year’s "Across The Universe" took songs by The Beatles and built them into a narrative, so "MAMMA MIA!" uses a bunch of perennial ABBA numbers to tell a sentimental tale of a girl searching for the identity of her father. Perhaps your enjoyment will depend on how much you like the songs (I’m not a huge ABBA fan), but the great thing about this film is its joyousness." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES

"Mamma Mia! is a video clip & party with some dramatic ballast, floating on the Abba song encyclopaedia, with songs fitted in to take the emotional shape as required by the story at any given time. Made with a lovely sense of abandon, the film is irresistibly entertaining and hedonistic without losing sense of caring and sharing." Andrew L Urban URBANCINEFILE "No matter how many blockbusters there are, Universal Pictures screen version of the global hit stage musical "Mamma Mia!" is the most fun to be had at the movies. Streep is sensationally good in rendering the whole yarn credible." Ray Bennett HOLLYWOOD REPORTER "If Sweeney Todd was the most dark, depressing and downbeat musical to ever hit the silver screen, Mamma Mia! is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. And the reason this musical succeeds where so many others have failed? The answer is simple: from start to finish Mamma Mia! never tries to be anything more than it is: a bit of fun." Sean Lynch WEB WOMBAT "It's difficult to find fault with a film that makes you feel as good as Mamma Mia!. I fairly bounced out of the preview screening swearing I'll go back and see it again (for fun instead of work) and I know I'm not the only one. You don't have to be a dyed-in-the-wool dancing queen to enjoy this musical, such is its joyful exuberance." Chris Bartlett QLD SUNDAY MAIL "Throw your skeptical preconceptions out of the window, relax and go with the ABBA-induced flow. It’s the only way to treat Mamma Mia!, a movie which works because nobody is taking any of it seriously. It’s the strength and infectious zeal of the cast that shines through and ticks all the boxes and more. Incredibly, Mamma Mia! looks set for a whole new lease on life." Richard Mowe BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE "Set on drop dead gorgeous locations in the Greek Islands, the film takes flight from a pulse of music, compelling performances and an uplifting story that deals with issues of the heart all wrapped up with a ribbon of fantasy. Baranski is a real scene stealer as the plastic-surgery enhanced Tanya who has an eye for younger men (and the ability to keep the upper hand)." Louise Keller URBANCINEFILE

From Stage To Screen It’s the blockbuster stage musical seen by more than thirty million people in one hundred and seventy cities and eight different languages. About a bride, her mum and three possible dads. Filled with songs by iconic supergroup ABBA that you know and love. Now, "Mamma Mia! The Movie" has finally hit the big screen. The story of "Mamma Mia!" began in the '80s when producer Judy Craymer was working with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus as executive producer of their first post-ABBA project, "Chess". She was immediately smitten with them. "After all, these were the men who had written 'Dancing Queen', one of the greatest pop songs of all time," the 2001 Golden FIPA Award winner (for TV's "Glorious") Craymer explained. Inspired by the theatricality of their songs, she was moved to create a musical that would use existing ABBA songs, but one set against an original and exciting new format. One song in particular, "The Winner Takes It All", turned out to be the trigger. Originally titled "The Story of My Life", ABBA’s greatest break-up song (also the band’s last top-10 hit in the United States) takes the listener on a roller-coaster ride of emotion. In spite of reassurances that this would not be an ABBA tribute musical or the band’s story, Andersson and Ulvaeus were initially reluctant. So, Craymer began the long campaign of persuading the two to lend their songs to the project. In 1995, her tenacity paid off. They agreed, provided she could come up with a story strong enough to carry the songs, and a writer who could unlock the potential she’d spotted. In 1997, years after she had approached the men behind ABBA, Craymer met playwright Catherine Johnson ("Sin Bin" starring Pete Postlethwaite), whom she believed had the talent and sensibility for the job. Craymer briefed Johnson, and the producer asked the writer to note how ABBA’s songs fell into two distinct groupings: the younger, more playful and innocent songs such as 'Honey, Honey' and 'Dancing Queen', and the more mature, reflective and emotional songs such as 'The Winner Takes It All' and 'Knowing Me, Knowing You'. Craymer believed the songs suggested a story that could span generations. Björn Ulvaeus's first music group was the "Mackie's Skiffle Group". In 1962 the group re-emerged as the "West Bay Singers". After winning the 'Plats på scen' in 1963, Stikkan Anderson (of newly formed Polar Music) suggested they change it to "The Hootenanny Singers". In 1966 he met Benny Andersson of the "Hep Stars". Later at Benny's suggestion he joined the group. It would set the wheels in motion for one of musics greatest partnerships and lead to the formation of ABBA. Ulvaeus recalls the work that went into the stage play: "Things were changed, songs were taken in and thrown out. By then, Catherine knew every lyric and was familiar with these hundred songs or so of the catalogue. The ground rule was not to change them, and given that, it is amazing how it still was possible to weave a story." Benny Andersson waited until the first preview to sit down and see the production, and was quite moved by how well it turned out. "I think that the biggest surprise for people who go to see it is that whatever they think it is before they go, they come out with a totally different experience," he recalls. "The songs are good, but the context in this intelligent, witty way that they put together the old lyrics and used them to bring the story forward was amazing. I’m Catherine Johnson’s biggest fan." The first show opened on April 6th 1999, at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, which was deemed a good omen as ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest on the same date in 1976. The stage production was given the kind of rapturous reception it has grown accustomed to ever since. "Mamma Mia!" opened in the U.S. in November 2000 at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. In October 2001, the musical debuted on Broadway. Advance ticket sales brought in twenty seven million dollars (one of the highest in theatre history), and, in 2002, the show received five Tony Award nominations. In February 2003, the show opened at the Mandalay Bay Theatre in Las Vegas, and played its one thousandth show in June 2005 (becoming one of the longest-running Broadway plays in Las Vegas). The story is now theatre history. Mamma Mia! has become a global entertainment phenomenon. There have been twenty productions of Mamma Mia!, and currently nine are generating more than eight million dollars a week in ticket sales. More than thirty million people have seen the show worldwide. More than seventeen thousand people see the show around the world every night, and Mamma Mia! has already grossed more than two billion dollars at the theatrical box office. Soon after the show opened in London, several companies expressed interest in making the musical Mamma Mia! into a film. Tom Hanks ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") and Gary Goetzman ("Charlie Wilson's War" & "The Polar Express") of Playtone, would ultimately become Littlestar’s (Judy Craymer’s company) producing partner for the film. Executive producer Hanks recalls of seeing the show: "By the twelfth minute, I was standing up singing along with the music." But Craymer was in no hurry to translate the musical for the screen. "Mamma Mia! begged to be a movie," she said, "but first, I had to get the shows to the point where it was appropriate to make that transition.” There was still much of a journey for Mamma Mia! on the stage, and the team needed to focus on the show and new openings internationally. In 2003, after Mamma Mia! had opened across Europe, America, Australia and Asia, Craymer felt the time was right to adapt it for the screen. She contacted Gary Goetzman at Playtone again and asked if they would be interested in partnering to produce the film. Happily, Playtone was, and a deal was made. "The most important factor in translating Mamma Mia! to film was to capture the tone, energy and spirit it has on stage. We knew if we could do that," Goetzman says, "we would make a great movie." The challenges of expanding a stage play into a musical romantic comedy was not lost on Johnson. "At the essence of it was getting a camera in my hand and figuring out [when the song tracks came on] when the camera moved and when it didn’t. I was determined that the camera language was going to be different for every song," Lloyd recalled, "not just for the sake of it, but so that it would do something different to the audience: according to what the plot required at the moment. I wanted to get inside the scenes, because I’d always been outside them in the theatre." "The involvement of Benny and Björn continued to be crucial," says Craymer. "To have them working in a hands-on way, reworking the music and recording with the actors was an incredibly exciting prospect for us." "It has been tremendously joyful, especially collaborating with the actors who have been so incredibly well prepared. It’s a totally uplifting experience," says Andersson. His professional partner Ulvaeus adds, "We have had so much fun. The actors have been delivering exactly what is needed. It’s been wonderful." With a highly accomplished behind the scenes production team, the filmmakers looked to find a cast just as amazing. Craymer had always said songs were the stars of the show, but after she looked around the table at the read-through, she admits, "I had to eat my words." Cast in the lead role of Donna was the incomparable 1980 & '83 Academy Award ® winning actress Meryl Streep ("Kramer vs Kramer" & "Sophie's Choice"). "We had always leant towards Meryl Streep playing the lead character. It was beyond joyful that she said yes to the offer immediately," says Craymer. "We dreamt of asking Meryl to play Donna," says director Lloyd. "We knew she sang; we knew she wanted to do a musical." Streep, who had seen the stage show in New York and recounts, "It was pure joy. The songs are timeless. They just enter your body. When I came to learn them, I found I knew every single one. They have amazing hooks and great melodies." Cast to play the (un)welcome dads were: 1988 Saturn Award winner Pierce Brosnan ("Tomorrow Never Dies"), 2001 European Film Awards winner Colin Firth ("Bridget Jones's Diary") and 1982 Berlin Film Festival Silver Berlin Bear winner Stellan Skarsgård ("Den Enfaldige mördaren"). Says Lloyd, "We’ve got three men with incredible warmth and humour, and an intrinsic understanding of what Mamma Mia! is and what it requires." Former 007 star Brosnan admits to being initially terrified at the thought of having to sing and dance. "I experienced sheer terror at the idea. I don’t think I have ever been so nervous about a job." Firth notes: "The greatest pleasure of doing this has been working with this cast. Little bits of extra inspiration come up just because we’re all having fun. Phyllida has an amazing way of informing moments that don’t seem to have been important, with texture, or using an angle that could make the moment more interesting." Skarsgård, who played Bootstrap Bill Turner in the smash hit Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, was intimidated by a different challenge of a musical film: dancing, something he revealed he hasn't "done sober in thirty years. I enjoyed it enormously and tried to have as much fun as I could. The whole experience has been totally liberating. All you can do is enjoy it and go for it." As for the three men being cast in supporting roles, he jokingly says: "Nobody is really interested in our psychology. We are the bimbos in the film!" Cast as The Dynamos are: beloved British star of stage and screen and television, five time BAFTA winner Julie Walters C.B.E.("Educating Rita" & "Billy Elliot") and, 1984 & 1989 Tony Award winning actress Christine Baranski ("The Real Thing" & "Rumors"), one of the musical theatre industry’s most-honoured actresses, who was seen in the filmed production of "Chicago". Though Walters has experience in singing and was less fazed at the prospect than the actors who play Sophie’s dads, the dancing was another matter. "I beat the floor at home to death practicing the dancing," she said. Baranski, on the other hand, underscores the daunting task the cast would face. "There’s a tendency to think ABBA songs will be easy to sing, because they’re so catchy perhaps: but they are much more complicated than one would think. They demand a certain style. Benny and Björn are superb musicians, and their harmonies and rhythms are complex. They are very exacting about what they want." The filmmakers had very specific ideas about the roles of Sophie and Dominic. They found their young lovers in Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper. "Amanda has that completely winning, radiant warmth and an almost childlike youthfulness," Lloyd notes. "Dominic has a charming yet playful factor. He can sing, and the girls love him. He is perfect in the role of Sky," says Craymer. Synopsis

An independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, Donna is about to let go of Sophie, the spirited daughter she's raised alone. For Sophie's wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends; practical and no-nonsense Rosie and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tanya, from her one-time backing band, Donna and the Dynamos. Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own. She's found her mothers diary which chronicles Donna's love affair with three men. Sophie suspects one of them is her father. She needs to find the identity of her father so he can walk her down the aisle. And so, without her mother's knowlege, she brings these three men from Donna's past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited twenty years earlier. Over twenty four chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities.

The Verdict "If you want a couple of 100% guaranteed ways to spoil the exhilarating experience of "Mamma Mia" then here they are: (1) Just go into your local megaplex thinking that every song you're going to hear, will sound just like ABBA and (2), convince yourself that if you've seen the stage production, nothing could ever surpass it! Wow! What a bummer of an experience "Mamma Mia" will then turn out to be. Thankfully, "Mamma Mia!" will provide a funfilled, memorable experience for the vast majority of cinemagoers who have either longed to hear the glorious songs of ABBA performed on the bigscreen or, who, like two time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks couldn't wait to see the stage production transposed to the bigscreen. Hell, if the cast, the singing and everything else about the film truly, truly, impressed Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (that's right, the ABBA guys), why wouldn't it impress cinemagoers? After all, when the idea of making "Mamma Mia" the stage version was put to them, they were highly sceptical. ABBA fans the world over can thank director Phyllida Lloyd for her dogged persistence and belief for an idea that would see the stage production become become a world-wide phenomenon. Who knows, the film production may just go the same way. I'm sure there will be many ABBA fans who will want to see the film over and over again. There are so many highlights in the film, it's hard to know where to start. Let's just say, the Greek Island setting is to die for, Streep is outstanding as are Julie Walters (Molly Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise) and former "Cybill" star Christine Baranski (87 episodes between 1995 and 1998) who gives a spicey rendition of "Does Your Mother Know". Ladies in the audience will be impressed with the 'guys', even though they are relegated to supporting roles because of the strong female cast. It's a must! It's toe tappin ABBA-tastic fun. 4 1/2 STAR." Crew Bytes "MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE" was .......
directed by Phyllida Lloyd ["Mamma Mia!"]; screenplay by Catherine Johnson ["Love Hurts", "Byker Grove" and "Band of Gold"]; set decoration by Barbara Herman-Skelding ["The Wedding Date", "Proof" and "Closing The Ring"]; costume design by 2003 Hollywood Film Festival Award winner Ann Roth ["The Day of the Locust", "The English Patient", "The Hours" and "The Good Shepherd"]; production design by Maria Djurkovic ["Sliding Doors", "Billy Elliot", "The Hours" and "Sylvia"]; supervising art director Nick Palmer ["Lost in Space", "The Hours" and "Eastern Promises"]; edited by Lesley Walker ["Shirley Valentine", "Shadowlands" and "Nicholas Nickleby"]; cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos ["Enduring Love", "Venus" and "Death Defying Acts"]. Who's Who?

Meryl Streep Julie Walters Christine Baranski Amanda Seyfried Colin Firth Stellan Skarsgård Pierce Brosnan Dominic Cooper Nancy Baldwin Heather Emmanuel Rachel McDowall Ashley Lilley Ricardo Montez Mia Soteriou Enzo Squillino Jr Philip Michael Chris Jarvis George Georgiou Hemi Yeroham Maria Lopiano Juan Pablo Di Pace Norma Atallah Myra McFadyen Leonie Hill Jane Foufas Niall Buggy

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Donna Rosie Tanya Sophie Harry Bright Bill Sam Carmichael Sky Sam's PA Harry's Housekeeper Lisa Ali Stannos Arina Gregoris Pepper Eddie Pannos Dimitri Ione Petros Irini Elena Ariana Elpida Father Alex

Run Time 108 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Universal Pictures - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - Impact Internet Services & The Movie Pages - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.