Okay, let's just get this out in the open right now. If you don't like ABBA you've got no soul. Maybe that's a strong statement, but it's close to the truth. Millions have espoused loathing the '70s disco phenoms, but I defy you to find a toe that's not tapping when the strains of "Dancing Queen" waft through the air. ABBA has graced many a soundtrack for good reason: They're the perfect pop group. Is it really surprising a musical was created to use ABBA songs? Writing an enduring musical is extremely difficult: Quick, sing something - anything - from Miss Saigon, Nuff said. Why write new music when ideal sing-along tunes already exist?

With that in mind, Mamma Mia! is exactly what you would expect it to be. With ABBA's overarching motifs in mind, a fluffy romantic comedy is really the only subject matter creator Catherine Johnson had to work with. Fortunately the libretto is uncomplicated enough to allow for an appropriate song at any given moment. ABBA's unity of theme - love, heartache, parties, love, heartache - make it simple, unlike the forced narrative of something like We Will Rock You, the musical based on Queen's catalog. A Killer Queen from outer space. Really?

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and her single mother Donna (Meryl Streep, looking gorgeous) are preparing for Sophie's wedding on their idyllic Greek island home. Sophie picks up her friends from the pier and promptly informs them she found - and read - Donna's old diary and thinks she has an idea of which of three candidates could be her unknown father. Better still, she's invited them all to her wedding with the intent of having one of them giver her away. So far, so silly. Of course when Harry (Colin Firth), Bill (Stellan Skarsgrd), and Sam (Pierce Brosnan) arrive, all manner of misunderstandings ensue before the realization dawns on all of them that family is where you find it, parenting transcends conception, and one defines oneself. Sondheim it's not.

There are two ways to read Mamma Mia! It can be dissected as a film, so let's do that. Not only is the fundamental plot device - reading someone else's personal diary - flawed and probably offensive, none of the characters comes close to reaching beyond the standard archetypes of the weakest art. Donna's a wacky former hippie, and her best friends Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) are the requisite hard-nosed third wave feminist and serial monogamist cougar (she gets to camp it up in "Does Your Mother Know") respectively. Harry is the repressed London businessman, Sam is the harried and unhappy New York architect, and Bill is the kooky Swedish adventurer (a shout-out to the group's origins?). Also potentially irritating for some will be Sophie's whiny insistence on "finding" her dad and the thematic undercurrent that focuses on out-dated notions of the traditional nuclear family. Alienate viewers (like those whose parents were ABBA fans) is one thing, but the idea clashes with the relationship between Donna and Sophie that the film itself envisions. They're a stable, communicative, affectionate mother-daughter team that's enviable, not tragic.

On the other hand, no one is going into Mamma Mia! looking for a thoughtful mediation on the nature of the 21st century family or a woman's right to self-determination. It's rare to see a cast that looks like it's having a good time - and this one does. This is one of the year's strongest gatherings of talent (40 awards between them, not counting Streep's 63 non-Academy wins), and seeing Streep bouncing on a bed singing into her hairbrush is initially disconcerting. That said, it's not nearly has humbling as Jodie Foster's humiliating turn in Nim's Island. But the enthusiasm is contagious, and for whatever reason, you'll likely find yourself grinning along with them. Renowned theater director Phyllida Lloyd has transplanted the play to the screen beat-for-beat, and given the film a theatrical aesthetic that, wisely, propels the whole thing into the realm of fantasy. On a side note, like its female-powered box office harbinger Sex and the City, it's refreshing to see the forty something girl get the guy.

It's no secret that the cast did all its own singing, and in Mamma Mia! that was a questionable decision. It makes for a natural vibe, but none is a trained singer. Ouch. Brosnan in particular is ear-shatteringly weak, but in a roundabout way he provides some of the musical highlights, giggle-inducing as they are: His duet with Streep on "SOS" is especially amusing - if you can stomach it. Mamma Mia! is the cinematic equivalent of a soft drink. It's fizzy, and sparkly, and sugary-sweet, and it makes you happy in the moment. Later on, your teeth hurt and your stomach is queasy. And if you're upset by the exclusion of "Waterloo," stay for the end credits. Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

Mamma Mia! opens in Hong Kong today.

(HK Edition 09/11/2008 page4)