(This review may contain spoilers).
Having been a long-time fan of ABBA’s music, I remember being excited about seeing this film when it was originally advertised at the cinema. Having watched it again now, I enjoyed it just as much.
Mamma Mia is a really feel-good film. It was nice to see that there were a lot of similarities between Donna and Sophie… and it was really easy to understand why Sophie wanted to meet her real father. I felt that she came across as a fairly typical young person – impulsive and very excitable.
While it was good to see that Donna’s friends were developed characters, it was a bit annoying that Sophie’s friends were hard to differentiate between. It was good to have the opportunity to learn more of Donna’s past and to see the contrast between her and her friends.
While a lot of the songs in this film did work well, there were a couple of occasions where the breaking into the songs didn’t really work as well. One of the songs in particular felt stilted and forced when it began, even though it did contain a lot of emotion once it got going.
I thought it was really good that the actors did their own singing and I did like the fact that there were different relationships shown during the course of this movie. It was nice to see Sophie’s relationship with her mother and it was also good to see her get to know each of her three potential fathers.
I recognised a large number of actors in this movie and it was good to see them in these particular roles. There were a lot of comedy moments… and also a lot of really heart-warming ones. While it’s not a perfect film by any means, I think it works well as a feel-good film to entertain viewers for a couple of hours… even though the scene over the end credits was a bit weird.