Abba Daba Honeymoon

Can I say that Mamma Mia is a good movie? Well, that depends on your definition of what a “good movie” is. I liked it, almost enough to say “I liked it a lot.” But this one is a musical, so right there, I’ve lost a good number of you. And it’s not a post-modern musical, where its supposed to be odd that they’re breaking out in song, either. It’s of the traditional cheapie variety, and most people who don’t like musicals have seen very few, and very few that they’ve seen are of the "B-level" Mickey & Judy variety, where the production value is right there in those energetic faces, voices, and feet and nowhere else.

It would, however, be wrong to pretend that Mamma Mia is some kind of threadbare thing; truly morally inferior for me to try to get those with the desire to house independent-minded underdogs to adopt another cause. No, this is a big-budget (in terms of cast and location and material) musical that is not trying to sell you on the idea of the genre. It assumes you already are inclined towards it (as I mysteriously but happily am, being an otherwise graceless guy). It is not part of the whole “selling the irony kids on musicals” genre either, like the enormously popular but still-suspect Moulin Rouge – but not last year’s magnificent and growing Across The Universe, which is another argument.

Mamma Mia is not even as “good” in the objective sense as the derided film version of The Producers from a few years back. That one was good, better than it’s rep. I think people were just tired of the show by then, and many had been watching that movie for forty years at that point. And Mamma is certainly not VERY good, like last year’s terrific Hairspray. It’s good like Joel Schumacher’s Lloyd Weber Phantom film. That is, it's good, unless you hate musicals. Terrible, if you do.

And also “good” if you root for movies, if you’re on the side of movies while you’re watching them, especially ones like Mamma Mia, which start off on a purposeful but unsteady foot, and falter here and there, but hang together with verve, and deny cynicism. If you enjoy not enjoying movies, you certainly won’t enjoy this one. It is full of reasons not to like it, if that’s what turns your on. Much of the staging is uninspired, the plot is utterly kooky in a way that makes certain men uneasy, and – easiest target of all – Pierce Brosnan cannot sing, not even talk-sing like Rex Harrison. In fact, if you do like not liking things, I recommend this film to you, because you will have a great time fuming and thinking of ways to say you didn’t like it. It’s very screwy, silly, faux-gay, chintzy, admittedly.

So you’re thinking, there I’ve spent this whole blog entry talking about reasons you won’t like it, and I’ve already implied that I like it, so am I trying to make enemies of the void? Is this blog turning into one of those misanthropic things that get mysteriously deleted whenever things get shaky? Don’t worry, it’s not.

Here’s why I liked Mamma Mia. Firstly, two things. Meryl Streep is my favorite screen actor of all time, and she looks like she’s having a great time here in a role that is “beneath her” - but if we really feel so harshly about artists that we don’t allow them to have fun in roles we don’t approve of them taking, then do we really like them at all? Or do we hate them and own them, like unloved pets? So I like Meryl Streep as a person (who I’ve never met, but I’ve seen in a lot of her movies, which is more than I know about some people I’ve worked with for years), so seeing her happy makes me happy. She throws herself into this role just like she does any other, and she’s wonderful

Also, I’m a huge fan of ABBA. Yes, I know, for a long time rock critics were anti-ABBA, mainly because of the outfits and the tenuous connection to disco. But in the last, say, 15 years, the critics have come around (even guys like Elvis Costello) and recognized that the four Swedes produced pop music with inherent smarts; a deep understanding of what sounds good, and (adopted English or no) at least a few pop songs with weightier lyrics and themes than we sometimes find on the top forty.

“The Winner Takes It All,” for instance, may be the greatest break-up song I can think of. It’s obviously a creation forged in real emotion, and it has the arc and drama of theater, and it sounds great and sad. There’s a scene in Mamma Mia where my favorite screen actor of all time delivers this song in character and it’s one of the best scenes of the year, movie-wise. She’s delivering it to an ex-lover that we have to figure out is an ex-lover (the material the film is based on is smarter than it seems) of more import than two other ex-lovers also hovering about, not because we’re told but because we figure it out, which is the best way to do that. In fact, taken as an entry in the musical genre, Mamma Mia is rather wise and charming about sexual politics and old love. So, yeah, I liked the picture. It moves and has fun and everyone is happy and the plot is just silly enough that I enjoy watching smart people doing their all to pretend it isn’t.

Will you like it? I don't know. Are you me?