to go see the movie Mamma Mia. It’s the funniest, happiest movie I’ve seen in ages. I can’t actually remember the last time I came out of a movie crying from laughter!

I never did go see the stage play–as much as I love Abba’s music (they were HUGE here in Australia–and way before the rest of the world caught on to Abba goodness), the stage play just never appealed. To be honest, I just couldn’t see how they were going to get a story out of a string of Abba songs–no matter how good those songs were. But the movie looked like fun, and it had Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan in it, so I figured it had to be at least watchable (because, hey, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan are good scenery at the best of times 🙂  ).

But it was a whole lot more than that. Meryl was brilliant, and she has a great voice. Her version of The Winner Takes it All was absolutely heart wrenching. Pierce Brosnan can’t sing a note to save his life, but he tries sooooo hard and looks really earnest doing it, and it just adds to the fun. Colin Firth was only a little better than Pierce in the voice department, but he has that whole ‘stuffy Englishman trying not to look silly and managing to look adorable’ thing going, and it really just works. The rest of the cast were great, especially Julie Walters and Christine Baranski as Donna’s (Meryl’s) girlfriends and singing partners.  The plot itself was on the silly side but it really didn’t matter because the movie was just too much fun and it sweeps you along. I really can’t recommend this movie highly enough. The critics may be calling it a bit of silly nonsense, but sometimes silly nonsense is just what our souls need. I’ll certainly be going to see it again 🙂

And I don’t know whether it was having so much fun at the movie, chatting to the Lulu’s afterwards over dinner, or a combination of both, but I now have a plot line for Riley 8. The bad guys have changed, but all the little bits and pieces I wanted to include in this now tie together really nicely, and I think it’s going to be a ripper. Now I just have to write the thing 🙂