Mamma Mia!

It’s a fluffy happy good time escape from the world, even if Pierce Brosnan is not the second coming of Elvis Presley.

Amanda Seyfried stars as Sophie – a 20-year old lady living on a Greek island and preparing to get married, but wondering about the man who might be her father. Twenty years ago, Sophie’s mom, Donna (Meryl Streep) had three torrid affairs in a very short span of time, and never told Sophie who the father is (how Madonna of her!). Now, the bride-to-be has invited all three to the wedding, without telling Donna, and everyone is going to sing and dance their way through the mystery, misery and magic.

Who is Sophie’s Dad?

The storyline of trying to discover which of three men is the Baby Daddy is a bit too Maury Povich to be a family friendly movie (and some of the randy moments might shock the unprepared), but anyone over the age of 13 or so is in for the most entertaining night of their life as Mamma Mia! delivers silly, light hearted fun combined with a few dramatic moments that make you cry.

I dare you not to smile as each and every cast member puts forth the most energetic and crowd pleasing performance they can muster out of their hearts and souls to whip the audience into a frenzy of unadulterated glee.

Director Phyllida Lloyd fantastically captures all of it as she maximizes the very uncomplicated and thin plot by making each musical interlude into a fantasy video that should be playing on MTV or VH1, if either of them showed more videos. In one of Mamma Mia!’s climactic moments, Lloyd delivers a classic movie musical sequence to go down in history as Sophie bounces back and forth between possible fathers as each character comes to realize the ruse, disco lights flutter across the screen, a mass of people dances to the beat and the bass drives the music straight into your gut to become one of the most energetic, exciting and evocative scenes of the year. You have to see it to appreciate how Lloyd draws the emotion out of you.

However, Mamma Mia! delivers its best moments as a farce complete with an uproarious wedding scene that would make the Marx Brothers proud, a dilapidated villa where all of the action takes place and some quick-witted one-liners to make you laugh hard and often. Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard form a hilarious threesome as the potential fathers with each one playing off the other with perfect timing as if they are a comedy team that has been performing together for years. Each guy seems to be having the time of his life as Firth becomes the fuddy duddy banker, Skarsgard puts on an adventurous swashbuckling persona and Brosnan makes us see the charm in his less than fantastic singing abilities.

Then, Streep makes you forget about all of the Oscar nominations and serious drama she is known for as she gives Donna the kind of hippie dippiness you wouldn’t expect to see coming from such an accomplished actress, while tossing in some strength and impressive vocal chops at just the right moments.

Something tells me iTunes will be selling massive amounts of ABBA this week.

Mamma Mia! is rated PG-13 for some sex-related comments.