Movie Family Therapy: MAMMA MIA

Why do we lie? What happens when we lie?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are taking a look at the complicated family in Mamma Mia! They’re talking about honesty and what happens to relationships when we lie. Jonathan explains Sophie’s tendency to lie, where that comes from, and why we all lie. They talk about the stellar cast, less than stellar singing, and why this bad movie is so dang fun to watch.

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: Emily Colton
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

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[darkecofreak]

My Three Dads: James Bond, Mr. Darcy, and Bootstrap Bill Turner. 😂

[kikibwellness]

Calling this movie “a drunken karaoke party with A-list actors” is hands downs the BEST and most accurate description of this movie I’ve ever heard! 😂🙌🏻

[Jonathan_Collins]

Fun Fact about this film a lot of the 'extra's who you see dancing are actually locals who live on the Island and asked if they could join in. The people on the docks dancing were all locals living on the island originally not intended to be in the film!

[libraryanne]

Responding to the critics who panned Pierce Brosnan's voice, he replied (something to the effect) "But we all had SO MUCH FUN!"
What a great response to the trolls!

[marshmallsy]

There's something about this first Mamma Mia movie that just RADIATES joy to me. The deep, loving bonds between friends, the way Sophie spends the whole movie trying to connect with her father but ends with recognizing all her mother's efforts and honoring her instead, it's just all so FUN! It certainly helps that everyone apparently had a blast filming this movie and getting drunk on a beautiful Greek island lmao

[CameronMetrejean]

I read that when Pierce Brosnan signed onto this film he had no idea what it was, only that it would be filmed in Greece and Meryl Streep was in it.
And honestly, that’s all I would need too

[yugopolis]

My dad was obsessed with this movie, we watched it together million times. Mum was always saying 'why you keep watching this crap, this movie is not good' and never watched it with us.

My father died. Few months later, for Christmas, here we go again was on TV for the first time. We watched it together with my mum and she said 'oh dad would watch it if he was with us'. ❤️❤️

[Jonathan_Collins]

I think it's genius how they created a context story for all these different songs. They aren't just one song after another in this, these lyrics contain plot now.

[LivingFire_BurningFlame]

The energy they had on film was a direct translation of the environment on set. They had an absolute blast filming this and you can tell. It’s legendary. There are photos from their wrap party on location and it didn’t even seem like they had stopped filming.

[aaroneinhorn]

"You know what I love about Meryl Streep?"
"Everything?"

That's absolutely right. Good on you, Alan.

[hannahschrenk]

My parents never kept it a secret from us that our oldest sister was an accident that lead to their shotgun wedding. Because of that, myself and all my siblings were very careful with relationships, didn't start actually dating until we were adults, and had very few relationships before finding our permanent partners. Being honest with your kids is so important. Letting them learn from your mistakes allows them to skip having to make the same mistake themselves in order to learn the lesson.

[rebeckyever]

Honestly I don't know why ABBA had such specific songs but I'm glad they did.(also I'm glad all these a-list drama actors got to do something fun and campy)

[You-dont-get-to-know-]

I can’t believe they skipped “Slipping through my Fingers” I was so looking forward to seeing Alan cry.

[cherylmiller]

This was a movie made by people just having a blast. No one is pretending they're a great singer or dancer. Period. This was all made possible because ABBA music is just so absolutely great. I would have been happy had they tried to "shoe horn" even more songs into it.

[prophetessoftroy]

Also, Christine Baranski is CRIMINALLY underrated always, but in this movie particularly. She and Julie Walters make it.

[trinaq]

I liked how nobody judged Donna for her wild past, not even Sophie. The Mother/Daughter relationship was always the best part of these movies.

[witcherye]

as someone who was always wary of men since childhood, watching sophie's scene with her 3 "dads" on the boat was so pure for me. I watched that when I was a kid and I remember liking that they were so caring towards her with no ulterior motives

[Uncle_T]

To be fair to pierce Brosnan he was well aware of the fact that he can't carry a tune to save his life but he said f*ck it and went all in anyway, kudos for that. But yeah he doesn't sound great. :)

[Iknowitsweird]

You know, my ex used to go on and on about how Nickelback isn't a good band, yet he would listen to it with me and enjoy it. I eventually got sick of it and told him to stop critiquing and just listen to the darn music, and leave it to an art historian to decide if we were on the wrong side of history or not. You can't help what you like or don't like. And Mamma Mia! was clearly designed to hit emotional beats that touch women's hearts deeply through music, movement, and love, so is it really that bad? And if it is, can't I just enjoy my favorite actors playing dress up and singing karaoke badly on stage?

[rmsgrey]

A question this episode raises but doesn't address is "What is a 'good movie'?". If the purpose of Mamma Mia is to entertain, and the movie does, does it matter that the plot is Shakespeare grade, and the actors can't sing, but pour their heart into the performance anyway?