Mamma Mia!

I've never considered myself to be a great fan of ABBA. Despite those countless times me and a friend worked hard to amuse our classmates in lower school singing Frida & Agneta playback to ABBA tapes at the weekly "Roliga timmen" (Fun hour). That was of course before we realised we would do much better interpretations as The Supremes...

I also distinctly remember me in the backseat of my parents car freestyle on full blast singing loudly to ABBA tapes. With my parents in front seat begging me to keep quiet for a (long) while. And I do have a bunch of ABBA LPs and tapes left in the garden shed. And yes I did have different posters of them in my room back then and I did collect lots of ABBA memorabilia and newspaper clippings in binders (those I finally gave away to a Belgian friend who was much more a fan than I ever was).

So I suppose I did fancy them a bit after all, even though they sang in Swenglish and dressed horribly, the tunes were kind of catchy...

I've mentioned a few times that I'm no fan of musicals either, IMHO they're usually strained, horribly overacted and theatrical pieces that make me gag in disbelief or fall asleep. But there are exceptions to that rule, there are fabulous ones like Singin' in the rain, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Cabaret and The Wizard of Oz. And now I'd like to add one more.

We went to see "Mamma Mia!" the other day - with my mother hence making it a proper Mamma Pia experience. I've never had any inclination whatsoever to see the musical on stage (please see above two reasons for that) but seeing excerpts from this movie I thought it looked and sounded like great fun. And not only because it included Colin Firth.

My first thought was that it was shot in a stunningly beautiful, magical, unspoilt place (although some of the scenes had quite a weird light and background to them so I guess they were staged in a studio). Second thought was that actress Amanda Seyfried was overacting in the most horrible non-credible musical way imaginable - but she did have a lovely singing voice. Third thought was, oh my, not even an usually amazing Meryl Streep acts well in this musical movie. Sigh.

But since there was eye candy in Mr Firth as well as Mr Brosnan - yes I did have a major teenage crush on him when he played Remington Steel... But despite his still handsome looks and that crush I haven't much cared for the things he's done since. Might have something to do with the fact that he's not a very plausible and good kisser on screen. He kisses like a hen bum, all prim and wrinkly - not to mention the dreamy backdrop, I just might survive the next two hours.

And then magic happened. They sang "Dancing Queen" and it was suddenly just so wonderful, colourful, happy and beautiful. The singing, the dancing, the acting and I felt so proud of the fact that this is music and lyrics from Sweden that has proven so timeless and still brilliant in it's seemingly simplicity. ABBA-Benny made a cameo appearance as a piano player on an old boat, everybody was singing and dancing and all was well with the world. And I cried and I sang (lip-sync) and I couldn't sit still. And there was hope and faith and love in the air.

From then on the movie just became better and better, the actors seemed to truly enjoy themselves so much while filming, the theatrical overacting bits were more than easily condoned, and many of them sang surprisingly well. And the most amazing thing happened, it turned out that not only was he one of the ones that had a more than decent singing voice, he could actually kiss properly too. It was the first time I've seen Pierce Brosnan kiss in a more than fair style on screen. I guess it took a bit of ABBA and Ms Streep to make him fully embrace the idea and open up to it.

A joyful, exuberant, fun, stirring film that will make any person with a heart giggle, laugh and cry. ABBA fan or not. Even if the best ABBA song ever isn't part of the movie - The Day Before You Came...

Yup, in those crush days I did get myself a nerd proof of how much an admirer of his I was...