Mamma Mia! – The Movie (2008/Universal Blu-ray + DVD-Video Sets)

 

Picture: B/C+     Sound: B+ & B/B- & C+*     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

There is no doubt that despite what fans of “harder” music may think or like, ABBA is one of the biggest-selling artists of all time, though those critics could say they opened the doors for all the bad music that sells well today, that is not quite right.  Like film, music can achieve a certain atmosphere with certain kinds of density, and the sonic landscape of their music was always a combination of soft rock, storytelling, dance music, Disco at its peak and vocals that in harmony created a sound that is more unique and distinct than similar artists doing their kind of music then and now.  Mamma Mia! is one of two famous narrative projects to tie their music to the idea of marriage and the hard road to happiness, now a hit film after huge box office on stage.

 

Of course, there is P.J. Hogan’s film of 14 years before called Muriel’s Wedding, about a young lonely lady (Toni Collette) in Australia who wants to escape and finds this in part though obsessively listening to ABBA.  She could do worse.  The film used several of the original records and was a hit.  Now, stage director Phillyda Lloyd has made Mamma Mia! (2008) into a big film production, but the results are mixed.  As it arrives on Blu-ray and DVD from Universal, it continues to be a big hit overseas and features singing by its stars, including Meryl Streep, Piece Brosnan, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski and Amanda Seyfried among others.  It was enough to hear ABBA sing ABBA, but can be disorienting here, unless you like them and/or can adjust to their singing.

 

In this story, the bride to be (Seyfried, underrated and underused) is going to be given away by her mother (Streep) because no on is sure which of three men are her father.  The mother runs a hotel of sorts in Greece (where this film is shot) and is barely holding that place together.  The tale becomes one of self-reflection, self-loathing, comedy, drama and music.  However, while this might have moved smoothly with energy in the best stage performances, this film version is awkward, sometimes forgets it’s a musical and acts more like an operetta as if it dies not need the story when they start singing, then has awkward problems making the two worlds of singing and talking mesh.  There is something that consistently does not ring true here and for a story about a young lady getting married, it centers on the adults too much for its own good.

 

It takes no risks, though Brosnan singing is odd at first, then makes some sense.  Overall, I found this to me more awkward than Dreamgirls, which was criticized for the same thing and Hairspray, which was seamless in so many ways.  Maybe part of the joke besides having fun with the music is to have non-singers sing most of the tuners, but it is one joke that wears thin very quickly.  Though Streep does The Winner Takes It All well, other numbers are not as on target and the fact that Seyfried’s performance of The Name Of The Game was one of the best moments and it was cut and left in the extras here tells you how uneven this whole affair is.  I even like the cast, but the film’s insistence on catering to a middle-aged audience is a big mistake and hit or not, this is simply not going to age very well.

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 x 1 digital High Definition image was shot in real anamorphic Panavision by Haris Zambarloukos, B.S.C., but you would not know that from seeing the softened image, which affects the color and location shooting.  The style may work for some, but I was not impressed.  The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 x 1 image is even more problematic, with Video Black and Video White looking worse, though composition can be interesting.  The DTS HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Blu-ray and Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the DVD are from the same awkward soundmaster.  So what is the problem?  The difference in audio between dialogue and singing, which drops in quality when they talk, then jumps when they sing.

 

This has been an issue since musicals when for “stereophonic sound” in the 1950s, but is even noticed on later musicals that did work like Grease (1978), but in the Music Video era and with sound where it is now; it is a real problem to encounter it here.  The talking/dialogue portions can be too much towards the screen (I checked this on a few systems) and then it is too obvious that the singing was recorded at a studio.  That should not be the case and was not so much so on Dreamgirls, Chicago or Hairspray, though this is not the soundmix mess Rent was.  So expect this to be an issue too.

 

Extras on both sets include that fine, deleted Seyfried performance of The Name Of The Game, Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices of the film, a feature length audio commentary by Director Lloyd, a making of featurette, separate look inside the film featurette, Anatomy Of A Musical Number: Lay All Your Love On Me, Becoming A Singer, Behind The Scenes with Amanda, On Location in Greece piece, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” Music Video, Bjorn Ulvaeus Cameo, Deleted Scenes and Outtakes.  The Blu-ray has the additional benefits of the U-Control interactive function which allows you to add commentaries, see text “Behind The Hits” pop-ups and picture-in-picture clips.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo