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Mamma Mia!

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By ELLA TAYLOR

Published on July 15, 2008 at 12:14pm

Sure, it's nice that the actors sing their own numbers — Meryl Streep has a fab set of pipes, and the fact that Pierce Brosnan sings like a bullfrog in heat is used to adorable effect. But without the originals' multiply dubbed wall of sound, these Abba tunes only get their due in a few big production numbers. Otherwise, it's little more than droopy ditties draped around a threadbare plot about the daughter (Amanda Seyfried) of a single mom (Streep) who secretly invites three men (Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård) — each of whom might be the girl's father — to a Greek-island wedding. Mamma Mia! too rarely takes ownership of what it is: a stage musical that made a big ol' heap of money shoved onto the big screen to make a whole lot more.