Sitting down to watch Get Smart in the theater last weekend, I heard the unmistakable music stylings of ABBA with the song Take a Chance On Me, and I realized that this band from Sweden had a huge impact on our society. You can watch a movie and hear just a song, like with Get Smart, or a whole soundtrack can be created around it.
ABBA provided the backdrop for Muriel's Wedding as the lead character sits alone in her room, dreaming of the perfect wedding, and listening to their music. It's not the entire soundtrack, but with the band being part of the plot, they're widely associated with this film. Somewhere along the way, even before this, being an ABBA fan became a joke, and this film only heightened that, yet oddly honored the music 
at the same time.
The upcoming film Mamma Mia! features ABBA music exclusively, yet the band isn't part of the story. Instead, the story that originated as a hit musical on Broadway and the London stage, builds around the themes in the ABBA tunes, such as Take a Chance On Me and Dancing Queen. A young woman (Amanda Seyfried) intends to marry and would like her father to be there, but there's one problem, she's never met him.
The young woman's mother (Meryl Streep) has never told her who her father is, but going back through her life, she narrows it down to being one of three different men (Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, and Stellan Skarsgard), and invites all three to her wedding. From the trailers, it seems Streep's character may end up learning a few things of her own.
I'm hoping with ABBA featured in a much more positive way, that perhaps it will begin to be recognized more as a piece of our times, than a laughing stock. It may not be what we always want to listen to now, but it had its day, and hearing the music now always brings us back.
LauraBelle
Troubled Hollywood
**For more articles by LauraBelle**
