The flimsy plot does allow for some touching moments along with all the fun. Twenty year-old Sophie (Amanda Seyfried, best known as the catty head cheerleader in Mean Girls) is getting married and wants her father to give her away. The only problem: she doesn't know who he is! After reading her mom's old diary, she comes up with three possible "candidates" and impulsively invites all of them to her wedding. Her mom, Donna (Meryl Streep), is less than thrilled to have her old flames show up the day before her daughter's wedding, and complications ensue. The material allows Streep and Seyfried to have some endearing scenes together, and all three "dads" show genuine concern and affection for the daughter they never knew they had.

Though Streep and Pierce Brosnan (who plays Sam, one of the potential dads) are the headliners, the film really belongs to Seyfried. She lights up the screen whenever she appears, her mobile features communicating happiness or dismay with innocent puckishness. It also doesn't hurt that her long, curly blonde hair and big eyes give her the look of a mermaid. Seyfried is the best singer in the cast with a pure, if undistinguished, voice; Brosnan's voice is noticeably weak, and even Streep's range is limited. Streep's clinical approach to acting, too, can be jarring: you can almost sense her thinking, "Okay, raise the eyebrows, now purse the lips, now blink . . . " During her big number, "The Winner Takes It All," she is embarrassingly literal, pointing to the ground at one point while singing the line, "And someone way down here / Loses someone dear."

Despite these minor missteps, though, fans of the musical will find the movie thoroughly enjoyable. (Those not initiated, though, may find it too slight or too frantic.) Jammed with family, fun, lovely Greek scenery, and lighthearted jabs at the disco era, it's an hour and forty minutes of filmic Paxil.