Mamma mia!: Thank you for the music

Mamma Mia! will take you down memory lane if you have grown up listening to the phenomenal Swedish band ABBA, Those not familiar with the band or their music will not be disappointed either.

The movie is an out-and-out entertainer with lilting music and a very plausible romantic plot.

Donna (Meryl Streep) runs a hotel on a Greek island. Her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is getting married. One day, she stumbles across her mother’s diary which has an entry about Donna’s three summer romances, one of which led to Sophie’s birth.

Desperately wanting to know who her real father is, Sophie invites Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) to her wedding.

At the nuptials the trio is confronted by Donna and her friends Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski). What ensues is a rollicking romantic comedy peppered with the music and songs of ABBA which intermingle with the situations in the story.

On the whole, the movie works fine, but the characters are not well etched out. However, the performances are powerful and the comic timing is praiseworthy.

Youngster Amanda Seyfried does a commendable job considering she had to share screen space with some of the greatest actors of our times. The music and the songs of ABBA are well woven into the script.

Director Phyllida Lloyd has used all her theatre and opera experience to the maximum to come out with this thorough entertainer.

This is one summer movie not to be missed.