
Re: Would Lloyd even know where to put the camera?
Although she contrived a generally delightful staging for the stage version of
Mamma Mia, Phyllida Lloyd has very little idea of how to put a musical number on film and I don't think she'd know what to do with a number the artistically opens up possibilities for film. It's very clear in the film that the has problems with pacing the action, indicating that she directs for the moment without fully considering the bigger picture, and her handling of space remains, at times, stagebound rather than filmic. It's another good case, along with
A Little Night Music and
The Producers for not employing the director of the stage show to direct the film. (Don't get me wrong, I largely enjoyed the film but that enjoyment comes from the cast and their performances rather then anything that Lloyd does in her direction.)
Amanda Seyfried is good as Sophie, but she's not flawless. She's great as an emotional presence, she's doing the right things, she's easy to watch. Her vocals are generally good, but she has a slight, distracting tremolo at the end of many phrases and there also tends to be a uniformity in her vocal delivery. I don't think she or the character needs another song. Cutting the song does not make the argument with Meryl Streep's character, Donna, any less plausible. The audience knows that Sophie is anxious about the wedding; they don't need it reinforced over and over again as if it's some vital piece of new information.
The film feels bloated mainly because Lloyd, as mentioned above, doesn't know how to pace the material. The film is significantly different from the stage show in that Catherine Johnson, when retooling of the book for the screenplay, clearly couldn't decide who the leading lady is. Are we meant to be following Sophie or Donna's journey here?
Mamma Mia! so clearly Sophie's journey onstage, but, in the film, the writing doesn't fully commit to either choice and Streep is so strong that its becomes difficult to tell whether the role is written up or if it's the actress making the role more prominent because of the weight she brings to it simply by being who she is. I don't think either of these issues was fully considered by Johnson or Lloyd in the making of the film.
The film could quite easily work without either and would be better off for it; "When All Is Said and Done" is made unbearable by Pierce Brosnan's performance of the song. It's a relief when Streep finally joins in on the vocal. That reception scene is a prime example of how the the film is padded, and the choice to put that song in - to touch base with Donna and Sam when we're quite ready to see Sohpie and Sky sail off to "I Have a Dream" - once again reflects and underlines Johnson's dilemma about whose story the audience is meant to follow.
Later days
David