Refreshing news. An exception to the rule, shall we say? Definitely with Mamma Mia! (the ‘!’ punctuation mark is a device that changes the name to a movie from the stage version Mamma Mia). For Hollywood film products, the preferred age for actors energetically cavorting about, dancing and singing with wild abandon is considerably younger than the median age of the main protagonists of this summertime offering. Better still, there are no age innuendos or sight gags to make the ‘older’ people look ridiculous and/or infirmed, old. What a welcome release, from silly conceptions and casting limitations, to find older fifty-something actors performing in a decently entertaining cinematic musical.

If you have been watching musicals for decades, this filmic musical may fall short…really short of the mark. Otherwise, you will be laughing and rocking for most of the film like the string of young women watching Mamma Mia! the same evening, in the row in front of me. Once I realized the movie story was no more than the stage story and everyone was just ‘all that happy’, I simply let myself enjoy the frolicsome mashup. Anyway, I will watch just about anything that has glimpses of the sun drenched, dazzling Greek islands.

Another puzzler in this movie: the story about a Mamma and her daughter is much more focused on the forty-something generation characters than the twenty-something offspring. Therefore, most of the primary characters are Mamma’s unstipulated forty-something age, not played by actors of that age, but by a group primarily in their fifties.

51-year old UK Director, Phyllida Lloyd, has minimal film experience, hailing from the world of London theatre and opera. Her first cinematic project was the television version of the opera ‘Gloriana’, which netted her a couple of awards. Lloyd designed the original London stage version of Mamma Mia. For her second film, she was given Mamma Mia!, to which she infused a distinct flavor of the stage, literally bringing the original play to the screen unchanged. This would be either good or bad news to you, depending on whether you liked any of the stage productions.

One advantage for me—the movie clarified so many confusing or unexplained aspects of the production I saw here at our Mandalay Bay. A stage so small, relative to the audience, allowed easily half of the action, dialogue, plot-points, relationships and motivations of the story to become lost somewhere between the tiny actors on the stage and my seat. The movie ‘upgrade’ became explanatory, for me, and a lot funnier than the staged production. The entire film cast, and it is a large ensemble, manages to bring depth and clarity to the confusion of characters that merely flit on and off the stage, in the original live musical versions.

As the film title implies, this is a comedic story about a Mamma, Donna, (winningly portrayed by Meryl Streep who is 59) and her twenty-year old daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried, herself only 22). Sophie is a happy child, ecstatic about her fiancé, excited about her upcoming marriage. She is also curious about her heritage, as all she has ever known is Mamma Mia!, until she discovers and reads her Mamma’s diary. Yes—treacherous little wretch. Sophie is just ‘so’ lovely and sweet and disarming, no one seems to mind this trespass.

After all, there is no denying the truth of her situation, or Mamma’s. During her intrusive reading, Sophie learns of the three men in Mamma’s life one summer 21 years previous. A bright little thing, she puts two and two together and comes up with one hottie Mamma…and three possible fathers to give her away at her upcoming nuptials.

As Mamma doesn’t know Sophie has violated her privacy, Sophie does what any youngster would do who is worried they might be told No. She doesn’t ask. Off go the invitations and back come the RSVP’s, followed by the men themselves, all blissfully unaware of their upcoming auditions Sophie is holding. This private news is shared only with her newly arrived bridesmaids, musical fashion, in a solo number she sings from bottom to top of the island, skipping along precarious goat trails. Seyfried sings her heart out, divesting herself as a singer quite nicely. Her interactions with her potential fathers are well executed. She is a cutie, an actress to start following.

Streep is fun as Mamma Donna, who is understandably upset, and mystified as to why these men would all be there just when she needs to focus on her daughter’s wedding preparations—did you know she owns and operates, with Sophie and what few locals she can afford, a charmingly dilapidated hotel perched on top of a little island in the Aegean Sea? Yeah, and she does her own repairs too, thank you very much. This is why (for purposes of succinct exposition) she’s wearing overalls, racing in a beat-up truck down the mountain roads to greet her fashionable friends newly arrived at the dock on the sparkling sea far below.

The story rocks forth and back, in amusing counterpoint, first Sophie, then Mamma belting out musical hopes and fears. Mamma (Donna) must entertain her friends, oversee preparations for the wedding, avoid the men, and make sense of her long buried feelings. She works through all of these thoughts with her two friends and one of the three men for which she has the strongest feelings. This movie includes a rather touching mother/daughter vignette showcasing the chemistry that had developed between Streep and Seyfried—really well rendered by them and the filmmakers.

The rest of the cast supports the story, bringing comedic timing and a tremendous bravado to the relentless cascade of musical numbers. I have always enjoyed Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep and the yummy-gorgeous Pearce Brosnan who is 55, and sings—who knew! His voice isn’t strong, but he does OK, given that he must sing duets in the key of Streep, which makes him appear to be straining, which is unseemly for Bond. He must also stand close by in the fierce wind of Streep’s passionate singing, a la Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddie. He does have a solo, which is at an octave comfortable for him, and pleasant for me to watch. I just have to say he was really game about the whole gig, as this guy, Sam, an architect, who turned out not to be one of his usual smooth characters. Brosnan, incidentally, performed on the soundtrack for Tomorrow Never Dies (the ‘James Bond Theme’) and the soundtrack for Evelyn, the Irish-centric film he produced.

Christine Baranski (56), no stranger to Broadway style routines, as Mamma’s urbane friend, Tanya, vamped most scenes in which she sang and danced and completely ripped through the beach party ensemble dance number. She is a consummate performer and a joy to watch. I savor every moment she is ‘on’.

Julie Walters (58), who played Rosie, also brought a theatrical professionalism to the female threesome. She is more familiar to British theatre audiences, or even Harry Potter fans as Mrs. Weasley, Mom to her passel of freckle-faced, redheaded wizards. She began her film career nearly 30 films ago as Rita in Educating Rita (1983).

In addition to Brosnan’s Sam, the other two male candidates for Sophie’s Dad interacted with Sophie more than with Mamma. Former rock band musician, Harry, is played by Colin Firth (47), and the youngest of Mamma Mia!’s older characters. Stellan Skaarsgard (57) played the feckless adventurer, Bill, but hey, he was probably enjoying a role of a modern, fairly normal guy not needing prosthetics for the role.

This story, based loosely on a set of songs by Swedish rock band, ABBA, is a thinly plotted musical with a bachelor-ette party feel. Even the guys join the girl’s wedding eve party, as the girls are having way more fun.  Featuring actors with stage experience, all veterans in their own right, they collectively put on as good a show as the stage productions. So what a kick to watch them cut up ‘at their age’. If you haven’t seen the stage version, catch Mamma Mia! for a look at who the father is, to find out if anyone or everyone gets married and see some great Greek summer location shoots—Skiathos, Skopelos, Pellon, and some excellent 2^nd unit random shots, as well. Substandard cinematography, and who cares?

Another significant filmmaking point is the consistent lighting and framing, again without the general approach for older actors—primarily glow away the wrinkles, and shoot from above, etc. to keep the wrinkles and rolls to a minimum. Dropping these conventions gives Mamma Mia! an unembarrassed presentation of older people. The imaging quality is not unlike stage lighting, which would be familiar for the Director, but a disappointment to those of us who know what the Greek Isles look like on screen. Why film in Greece and make a good deal of it look like a Broadway/London stage? The Pine Studios sets were lit with a strange reddish-orange hue that contradicted the natural lighting palette. Even though you felt the jump from studio to Greece, the sets were great, certainly a huge improvement over the Mandalay Bay stage set.

Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, served as second unit Director of Photography on Batman Begins and cinematographer for over a dozen other films since being a camera intern in 1998 on A Civil Action.  He is directed to close in unmercifully on these Mamma Mia! faces, in unaccustomed fashion, and certainly with a new yardstick. As a lot of my favorite actors are aging, I certainly hope this is a trend. I’m unwilling to trade them in for new, younger models. I’d rather just have both.

The movie’s collective talent captures Greece, a musical, and a wonderful grouping of older actors on film in a marvelous outdoor romp, without being offensive. Mamma Mia! ends up being a humourous and dignified rendering of people—of all ages.

Screened at RAVE, Town Square, with a quick side trip afterwards to the first floor ‘food mat’ style frozen yogurt store. Yogurtland charges by the ounce. They installed a long wall of a dozen or so self-serve, soft-serve machines with several flavors each. You dispense whichever you want, as many as you want, as much as you’d like, after which two toppings cabinets await, with everything chocolate-y, as well as coconut, cookie dough, sprinkles, nuts and mounds of fresh raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and more. For a delightful and inexpensive bowl of several different flavors of yogurt and some fresh fruit topping—definitely stop in to ‘top off’ your outing.