MAMMA MIA! (2008)

This adaptation of Broadway’s ninth longest-running musical is one of the most buoyant, enjoyable songfests on screen. The Greek locations are beautiful, the familiar numbers from ABBA’s greatest hits are inventively staged, and the plot…well, it doesn’t really matter. Meryl Streep is a single mother running a resort hotel. On the eve of her wedding, Streep’s daughter (Amanda Seyfried) invites three men who could be her biological father, hoping to determine her paternity. Now, Streep suddenly has to deal with the reappearance of her three suitors: Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard. Regardless, the true heart of the film lies in the musical numbers. Director Phyllida Lloyd, who had directed the original stage productions in London and on Broadway, keeps the whole thing bouncing along, with the chorus popping up in unexpected places and well-known songs used in surprising ways. The credits even feature a curtain call with the cast done up in the height of 1970s glam rock.

d. Phyllida Lloyd, 109m, digital

Courtesy of Universal Pictures.