“ABBA: The Movie is a documentary/concert film with a fictional skeleton that holds the film together. When radio DJ Ashley Wallace (Robert Hughes) gets the impossible assignment to interview ABBA during their Australian tour, Ashley follows ABBA from city to city in a vain attempt to get time with the group.
“Although filled with concert footage, musical performances as well as backstage footage of ABBA, the film doesn’t end up being about Abba as much as the way that Abbamania gripped Australia, not to mention the rest of the world, at the end of the 1970’s.
“What makes ABBA: The Movie brilliant is the fact that although he had full access to ABBA, Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom strove to keep the band as mythical as possible. Despite getting backstage with them Hallstrom seeks to keep ABBA enigmatic and the viewer never truly gets to know them. As a result ABBA comes off as being untouchable and larger than life.
“The result is a glimpse of real people, as well as a realistic glimpse of 1970’s culture.” - Pop Culture Addict