Please Stop Singing

I wanted to like Mamma Mia. I really did. I'm a sucker for romcom and based on the previews, this is a movie I would have gone to even if it weren't an ABBA musical. "Bride invites her three potential fathers to a Greek Island for her wedding, and two of them are Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth? Count me in!"

I never saw the stage show, but I suspect I would have liked it, because I'm betting they cast triple-threats in the main roles. I do think the movie would have worked a lot better if anyone but Christine Baranski could sing. A friend with a better ear than mine assures me that no one was actually off-key, but when he commented that he thought therefore that they pulled off the singing, I could only counter, that maybe they pulled it off, but they certainly didn't put it over. I expect musical numbers to make me want to dance in the aisle, not cringe in my seat. Anything that can make me look away from Pierce Brosnan, has to be bad.

The one exception to my disappointment was the Dancing Queen number, in which the entire female population of the island joins in. This unlikely chorus reminded me of Matt Harding's Dancing Videos, uplifting and moving.