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MAMMA MERYL: THE DANCING QUEEN
Magazine / Source: The Herald Sun, June15, 2008 |
Meryl Streep doing the splits, Pierce Brosnan trying to sing and Colin Firth dancing with embarrassing bulges.
Those are the surprising elements of what many pundits are saying will be the movie of the year.
Mamma Mia! is a slice of camp, feel-good cinematic cheesecake originated by a trio of British women.
A phenomenally successful stage show in the nine years since it started with a run in London, Mamma Mia! has played to more than 30 million people.
It takes about $9 million a week globally and is, without doubt, the most successful musical on the planet.
Now, with the blessing of Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, who appear on screen briefly in cameo roles, it has been turned into a movie.
Filmed last year at Pinewood Studios, in the UK, and on location on the picturesque island of Skopelos, in Greece, the movie version is a glorious and deeply silly confection.
Reports from early test screenings are universally positive.
The surprise? That Meryl Streep, at 58, is athletic, has a big voice – clear, true and strong – and delivers the goods on Abba’s classics without a trace of embarrassment.
It is her first musical and yet Streep, who is known for her hard-to-live-with perfectionism and love of tricky bits of acting technique and odd accents, emerges from this film as a woman who is accomplished at physical comedy and funny when the occasion demands.
"Meryl is very good – it’s a revelation," says an industry insider who has seen the film, in which she plays Donna, the mother of a bride-to-be who is confronted by three potential fathers on the eve of her nuptials.
It transpires that Streep saw the stage show in New York with her daughter as a birthday treat and wrote a fan letter to the producers afterwards.
When it came to casting the movie, the letter was remembered and she was approached.
And, as a formally trained singer, she easily saw off competing claims from other actors, including Kim Basinger, Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer.
"They called and said, ‘You probably won’t be interested, but...’ I said, ‘Are you crazy? I would love to do this’. It was a done deal," Streep said.
Producer Judy Craymer adds: "We spoke to her agent, who spoke to her and the next thing we knew, we were on a plane to see her, like over-excited teenagers.
"She told us she thought the role would stretch her – it gave her a chance to be a singer, a rocker, a mother and to use her Looney Tunes farce skills.
The other big news about this film is the men – Brosnan, Firth and Stellan Skarsgard – humiliate themselves fairly badly, particularly when it comes to dancing and singing.
Craymer is trying to squash persistent reports suggesting none of her male stars could carry a tune in a bucket.
"Pierce sings brilliantly," she said.
"He does a sexy Springsteen-style thing."
Brosnan, who, of course, played James Bond, was discomfited to be filming musical numbers at Pinewood directly after Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale wrapped.
"I looked in the mirror and there was 007 and he was getting ready to expose himself to possible ridicule.
"One of my fears was that I’d be strutting across the car park in sequined tights and I would bump into Daniel looking very Bond-like.
Brosnan added: "I do a lot of singing and dancing and, yes, I’m good at it, even at my age. The knees are still good, the back is still good and the ego is fine.
"Colin is a lot more nimble than I am. It’s going to be a tough battle."
Firth, though, seems to be the most embarrassed of all of them by the undignified performance he has given.
On appearance on US chat show Late Night With Conan O’Brien last week was almost painful to behold.
Asked about the film, he said: "That is correct, I am in it. It’s going to come out soon enough. It’s going to be huge."
He then grimaced about the female hormones driving the film and said: "I think it will make Sex and the City look like Iron Man."
Firth said his singing voice was "somewhere between a drunken apology and a plumbing problem".
He added that the scene in which the three men appear in Lycra catsuits was particularly mortifying.
"There are bulges where there should not be bulges and no bulges where you wish there were."
The film, which has its world premiere in London on June 30, is a $70 million gamble by Universal on whether what appeals on stage will work on screen.
The studio was badly burned by the movie version of The Producers – it cost $50 million to make and grossed only $40 million.
The pressure must, then, have been on the trio of British women who created the stage show – and have had to fight to stay on board to make the movie.
Universal also had their worries – trying to predict if this was going to be a hit like Chicago, or a flop like Phantom of the Opera. Will Mamma Mia! make the grade? It has a lot of good omens.
First of all, it has had nine years of advertising thanks to the stage shows around the world.
Second, there is Meryl Streep. And, last but not least, there are the songs of Abba, which continue to enchant audiences worldwide.
Mamma Mia! opens on July 9.
