Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Director: Ol Parker
Starring: Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, and Lily James. Also,  Cher, and Meryl Streep
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 114 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2018

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Rating notes: Mild sexual references

This American musical romantic-comedy is a sequel to the 2008 film, “Mamma Mia”, which is based on a musical of the same name, and based on ABBA songs. The story takes up events, ten years after what happened in the first film.

Baranski, Brosnan, Skarsgard, Cooper, Seyfried, Firth, and Walters reprise their original roles, and there is a cameo appearance by Meryl Streep. The original 2008 film was directed by Director, Phyllida Lloyd. A different Director, Ol Parker, comes on board to direct the sequel, and Parker wrote the film’s screenplay.

Donna’s (Meryl Streep) daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is pregnant with child, (most probably) by her fiancé, Sky (Dominic Cooper), and Sophie is helping to manage a grand reopening of a villa, called Hotel Bella Donna, devoted to her late mother’s memory on the Greek island of Kalokairi. Sophie comes to learn much more than she knew before about her mother’s past, including the time she spent with members of her former musical group, and each one of her possible dads – Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), and Harry (Colin Firth). She also has an unexpected visit from her grandmother, Ruby (Cher), who stages her appearance at her theatrical best.

The film spends a lot of time in exploring how previous relationships affect those in the present. Donna had three lovers who might be her father. Sophie has three lovers also, and one of them is the father of her child. Sophie relies heavily on her mother’s old friends – Rosie Mulligan and Tanya Chesham-Leigh (Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski) – to find out what happened when her mother met Sam, Bill, and Harry, years before.

As the movie unfolds, we see a young Streep (acted by Lilly James) and an older Streep. Events expand considerably over time, and the frequent use of scene-changing alters one’s expectation of a time-bound “sequel” to the original movie. The film is filled with the music of Abba, however, and entertains in a thoroughly escapist way by aiming to establish the experience of déjà vu among viewers. It features songs and choreographs famous musical numbers, like “Money, Money, Money”, “Dancing Queen”, “Fernando”, and “Mamma Mia”, and it adds other well known ABBA numbers like “Thank You for the Music”, and “Waterloo”.

This is a movie that beams its sunshine through ABBA music and lyrics. The first “Mamma Mia” was a proven hit, and the second time around it tries to hit again, with its singing and dancing. The ABBA songs are infectious, and there is never any doubt for those involved in this sequel that the original Mamma Mia left nothing to be desired.

It is the music that makes this movie, not its story line, or moral tone. The film swings from one scene to another erratically, the gaiety looks excessive at times, the editing is loose, and Meryl Streep is mostly somewhere not to be seen. Streep appears on the screen at the end of the movie mainly to remind us that she was the lynch pin of the original film.

This is a movie to enjoy superficially, and not to probe too deeply into its plot line. The film is an excuse for ABBA songs to be enjoyed once again, and the film has a brisk musical feel of a catchy, entertaining theatrical production, with more than a hint of dubbing in it for some of the songs that are sung.

The sequel throws morality to the wind. The main message in this film seems to be to go ahead and do whatever in life one feels like doing. The hectic pace which accompanies that message throws viewers straight into finding enjoyment in the film’s catchy tunes and music, which is where the entertainment value of this film basically rests.

Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting