Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again *** (2018, Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters) – Movie Review

The bad news is this is the first weekend ever where eight of the top ten films at the box office were sequels – and this is one of them.

At least Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is lighthearted, cosy and harmless, though its familiarity is so strong it often feels like you are watching the 2008 original Mamma Mia! all over again. And in many ways you are.

Turning a series of vintage pop songs into an actual story and musical in the first place for Mamma Mia! (2008) was tricky but clever. In 2018, it is ingenious of them to find a way to tell more of the story, such as it is, by moving back and forwards from the young Donna (Lily James) to Donna (Meryl Streep)’s young daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), with mother and daughter weirdly living parallel lives, as daughter is now unexpectedly pregnant too, and all the old gang (Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters) are turning up for the christening.

At least Sophie knows who her kid’s father is – Sky (Dominic Cooper) – but he is away on boring business in America. Oh, and two of Sophie’s dads can’t turn up either – Bill and Harry (Stellan Skarsgård and Colin Firth). And then there is the huge problem that the first movie’s star character – Donna (Meryl Streep) is dead. That is mega-inconvenient.

Still, never mind, dear old grannie is planning to turn up uninvited – enter Cher as Ruby Sheridan. She totters on in a grey wig, sees Fernando (Andy Garcia), shouts ‘Fernando’, the audience thrills, and Cher trills – that would be ‘Fernando’, by the way.

Obviously things change – if you look at the prize-winning trailer or poster you will soon see. There they are, as large as life, Skarsgård, Firth – and Streep! How do they bring her back from the dead? And when? We wait, and wait, and wait, but girl don’t come.

[Spoiler alert]

Then, finally the film climaxes in the christening in the same old mountain chapel Donna ran up singing in Mamma Mia! The church doors suddenly open and through the bright sunlight appears the ghost of Donna – singing an ABBA tune! It is hysterical.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has two or three good musical number set pieces, some good gags, some decent turns, and its carefree air to recommend it. Weirdly, despite Cher, Streep, Baranski, Walters and the ABBA tunes, it isn’t camp. Director Ol Parker could have afforded to gay it up a lot, and it would be so much more fun. More sequins, more sparkle, more flares!

However, middle aged women in the audience were clapping along to the toe-tapping songs and gave it a round of applause. They are the audience, so it looks like they are voting yes. Josh Dylan and Jeremy Irvine are brought on as Young Bill and Young Sam eye candy for them, and they are charming, though Hugh Skinner has a better time as amusing Young Harry.

No film of this kind would be complete without Celia Imrie, and here she is singing alongaABBA as the Oxford uni Vice Chancellor. Even so, she is still not camp, just jolly. Omid Djalili is funny as the Greek customs official. His little sequences are among the best in the movie.

No doubt to save on the budget, they filmed in Croatia, with some UK shooting. Even so, it cost a huge $70 million.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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