Wow. What a state of befuddlement Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan have left me in. I went to see their all-ABBA musical extravaganza Mamma Mia! last weekend, and I was kind of appalled by the mediocre vocal work by everyone in the cast (except Amanda Seyfried, whose voice was lovely, though not exceptional), the hammy acting, and the overly-literal choreography. Laremy had some very not-nice things to say about it in his review, and I agree with many of his points.

And yet, I really, truly enjoyed myself at this movie.

Despite my objections, I began to understand the appeal of Mamma Mia! in the scene where Streep's friends (played by stage vets Christine Baranski and Julie Walters) try to remind her how much fun she was before twenty years of hard work and single motherhood wore her out. They begin to sing about the good old days when she was - you guessed it -- a dancing queen! It doesn't take Meryl long to get her groove back. By the end of the second verse, she's the pied piper of disco, leading all the women in her Greek island village down to the water for a big, communal sing-a-long. And the entire audience joins in, too. You just can't help it. "Dancing Queen" embodies everything that makes pop music so, to be obvious, popular. It's rousing enough to get you on your feet, and light enough to make you feel like you're floating across the room. It's pure joy. And while the cast of Mamma Mia! fails to hit the right notes or tell a comprehensible story, they nail the joy of the music. I suspect that's what's been filling up those movie theaters for the past two weeks.

Mamma Mia! reminded me of another musical with a cast that was a mixed bag of vocal talent: the "Once More With Feeling" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But the Buffy cast had an excuse. Those actors had been playing their roles for years before they were suddenly and literally asked to sing for their supper. The fact that some of their voices weren't up to par even helped to drive the show's theme home -- that we all let secrets and emotions build up inside us until they come bursting out in a manner we can't control. Buffy's tone deaf delivery of her songs helped show us just how vulnerable she was as she let those secrets out.

Maybe Mamma Mia! was trying to make a similar point. Whether you're Barbra Streisand or Meryl Streep, some emotions can only be fully expressed in a song, specifically a cheesy dance track from the '70s. It's a bit of a puzzle why director Phyllida Lloyd didn't hire a more talented singer to lead all those Greek villagers down to the dock. But if it got you singing along, does it really matter?

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