'Mamma Mia!' Is the Most Fun to Be Had At

_]haj`]n 4 COMMUNITY 4 ARTS 4 FILM 4 MUSIC EVX`V[jaalZZ`d[8]gdc^XaZ;âbA^hi^c\h Ledger’s maniacal, muttery Joker. The last laugh is his and his alone. It’s enough to ^cidndjgÊdY!E96!dge]dcZ make you cry. – Marc Savlov Klajejco ★★★■Alamo Ritz, Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo Drafthouse South, Alamo Brick Lane (PG-13) Vjhi^cX]gdc^XaZ#Xdb$êdY Drafthouse Village, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round The Dark Knight (PG-13) Rock, Southpark Meadows, Dobie, Highland, Gateway, Lakeline, Tinseltown North, Tinseltown Encounters at the End of the World (G) South, Westgate, IMAX Theatre THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER KISMAT KONNECTION Kismat Konnection (NR) D: Aziz Mirza; with Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Juhi Chawla, Om Puri. (NR, 154 min., subtitled) Mamma Mia! (PG-13) “‘ ’ Not reviewed at press time. An archi- tect needs a lucky charm to improve his MAMMA MIA! IS THE Savage Grace (NR) fortunes, and a woman he meets turns out to be just what he needs in this new Space Chimps (G) Bollywood film. – Marjorie Baumgarten MOST FUN TO BE Tinseltown South MAMMA MIA! N]pejco D: Phyllida Lloyd; with Meryl Streep, Pierce ★★★★★ As perfect as a movie can be HAD AT THE MOVIES Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic ★★★★ Slightly flawed, but Cooper. (PG-13, 108 min.) excellent nonetheless First let me soothe the jangled nerves THIS SUMMER. ★★★ Has its good points, of any purists in the house: Yes, Mamma and its bad points Mia! stays faithful to its source material. Everyone will be having a rollicking good By source material, I mean, of course, the ★★ Mediocre, but with time and dancing in the aisles to ABBA’s hit theatrical show that strung together a one or two bright spots bunch of ABBA chart-toppers and shoe- irresistible songs. Meryl Streep is horned a pittance of plot in between a ★ Poor, without giggling spectacle of song and dance. any saving graces sensationally good in one of her Yup, the film adaptation of the Broadway adaptation of a catalog of Swedish disco La bomba most entertaining performances hits retains all that is giggling and ups the ante with fodder for twitter, snicker, groan, had. Mostly known for TV work in Big Love ever. There’s not an audience and guffaw. This is astonishingly silly stuff, and Veronica Mars, Seyfried is a lovely find; this musical about the soon-to-be-married she has the most accomplished voice in anywhere that won’t be smiling. bastard child Sophie (Seyfried), who invites the cast and imbues a zero character with to her Grecian isle wedding the three men vulnerability and charm. The vets are fun to This is the winner that will she knows her mother, Donna (Streep), watch, too – especially Walters, as Streep’s schtupped during the summer of Sophie’s spectacled, sass-mouth gal pal, Rosie, and take it all!” conception. But it’s not like anybody’s try- the unflappable, frog-voiced Brosnan, as Ray Bennett ing to pass this off as anything other than one of the maybe-dads. His first solo in the silly – there’s a goddamn exclamation point sneak screening was swallowed whole by in the title. Which isn’t to say that there the audience’s laughter, which might have isn’t much to quibble with here, like the stung had he not gotten a working vacation apparent directive for someone – bride, in Greece out of the deal, not to mention a bridesmaid, scullery maid, whatever – to nice tan and toned glutes from running up dissolve into squeals at regular inter- and down all those hillside cobbled steps. vals, or director Lloyd’s apparent grudge We get substantially less, but I suppose matches with shot continuity and proper unbroken laughter – intended or not – and night lighting (it’s cool – she found last- an hour-plus of air-conditioning on some- ing love with slo-mo instead). There are body else’s dime will do. I could do without 77 indignities a-plenty heaped atop the cast “Dancing Queen” stuck in my head, but (Welcome to Ham Town: Streep, in her blue that will unstick soon enough, and with any romper, writhing in a lovesick throe atop luck, so too will the memory of Streep noo- “the old goat house,” and Firth, reduced dling on an air guitar. – Kimberley Jones in one of the final shots to just his bare, ★★★■Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo glistening torso cocked to the right of the Drafthouse South, Arbor, Barton Creek Square, frame). But to get back to that exclama- CM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round tion point: Once you accept everything it Rock, Southpark Meadows, Highland, Lakeline, entails, there are fleeting pleasures to be Metropolitan, Tinseltown North, Westgate © 2008 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS THIS FILM CONTAINS DEPICTIONS SOUNDTRACK ON DECCA RECORDS FEATURES OF TOBACCO CONSUMPTION 17 ABBA CLASSICS PERFORMED BY THE CAST MOBILE USERS: For Showtimes - Text MAMMAMIA with your ZIP CODE to 43KIX (43549)! Brick Lane OPENS FRIDAY, JULY 18TH CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATRES AND SHOWTIMES austinchronicle.com | JULY 18, 2008 | THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE | 77.

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