I wasn’t familiar with the songs of ABBA before I saw the movie, but I really enjoyed it.

Brilliant! Just SO much fun – foot tapping away, really joyful, feel-good movie. I wouldn’t have described it as entirely my cup of tea, but I’d go back to see it again in a flash!

Takes just a little to get going – the movie starts with young Sophie on the day before her wedding, but really the whole gleeful fun hangs on her mother, Donna (Meryl Streep), and friends (Christine Baranski and a gloriously hamming it up Julie Walters).

You see, Donna doesn’t actually know which of three men she… urm… knew that summer is Sophie’s father. But on discovering her mother’s diary, and thus the three possibilities, Sophie decides to invite all three to the celebration, figuring she’ll know the right one on sight. Of course, nothing is every that simple – and what happens when the men discover each other, that Donna wasn’t the one to invite them – and of course, when Donna finds her past turned up on her doorstep!!

It’s almost a Shakespearean comedy of errors – a classic story-telling style with a hefty dose of music, allowing the whole thing to overcome a shade of predictability.

The film does storm along best during the big Abba hits: the Dancing Queen scene is alternately VERY funny and very… oh, just life-affirmingly joyous. Alas, there are a few set pieces of quieter and/or less known songs (a few I didn’t recognise at all) where the pace does slip, but overall it’s fun. The singing is largely pretty good, too – although… sorry, Pierce (Brosnan), but that voice could do more damage than Bond’s Walther PPK!!

Oooh – stay a bit at the end. The girls do a couple of songs, in full costume and make up… but then there’s a small surprise for you ;)