Oh ‘Mamma’
Does the ABBA tune-fueled sequel “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!” make a dollop of sense?
PG-13 1:54
The ideal summer popcorn flick for moviegoers who don’t care for superhero shenanigans or rampaging dinosaurs, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” revisits two generations of twisty romantic drama, set to the irresistible sounds of Sweden’s greatest musical import.
The follow-up to 2008’s “Mamma Mia!” — a surprise box-office smash adapted from the popular jukebox musical built around ABBA’s greatest hits — features improved song-and-dance numbers, although many of the bestknown ABBA tunes already were snapped up for the first film.
But the sequel’s storytelling is as flimsy and full of holes as a crocheted bikini top, and what is shown on the screen doesn’t really match up with the synopsis or trailers Universal Pictures released ahead of the movie.
Set five years after the events of “Mamma Mia!,” the sequel is not a Meryl Streep vehicle like the first one. For reasons I won’t detail to avoid spoilers, the three-time Oscar winner is featured in maybe five minutes of “Here We Go Again,” reprising her role as freespirited innkeeper Donna Sheridan, just long enough to warble “My Love, My Life” in a genuine tearjerker moment and participate in another raucous end-credits sequence to an infectious repeat of “Super Trouper.”
Instead, it’s Donna’s adult daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) who has taken over her mother’s inn on the idyllic Greek island of Kalokairi. With the help of suave manager Mr. Cienfuegos (Andy Garcia), Sophie is preparing a grand reopening of the refurbished hotel, but her personal life is in shambles, with her husband, Sky (Dominic Cooper), having gone to New York and noncommittal about coming home.
Still, Sophie invites her extended family to the opening, including her honorary aunts Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) — her mom’s best pals and former backup singers in their 1970s band — and her three dads: adventurer Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgard), banker Harry Bright (Colin Firth) and architect Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan), whom her mother married at the end of the first film. The only one who doesn’t get an invitation is her absentee grandmother, Ruby (Cher).
With her own life changing, Sophie starts seeking more detail about the pivotal time in Donna’s life when she was involved in three whirlwind romances and got pregnant. And writer-director Ol Parker obliges by cannily jumping between Sophie’s presentday preparations and young Donna’s (Lily James) adventures, starting with her 1979 graduation from Oxford, where she turns her valedictory speech into a flash mob to ABBA’s cheeky “When I Kissed the Teacher,” with Rosie (Alexa Davies) and Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn) backing her up in all their bell-bottom, full-throated glory.
Impulsively packing up to see the world, Donna meets-cute with young Harry (Hugh Skinner), charms her way into a sailboat jaunt with young Bill (Josh Dylan), and gets swept into stormy passion with young Sam (Jeremy Irvine).
James stars in most of the musical numbers and brings a fun-loving vivaciousness and impressive pipes to personal ABBA favorites “The Name of the Game” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” the sultry deep cut “Andante, Andante” and the reprise of “I Have a Dream.”
For the most part, the musical numbers feature better singers, cleverer staging and sharper choreography. “Waterloo” makes a dazzling comeback performed by James and Skinner in a French cafe; James and Dylan frolic around his sailboat singing the swinging tune “Why Did It Have to Be Me?”; and Seyfried and Cooper break hearts with the ballad “One of Us.” Scene stealers Walters and Baranski get a well-deserved showcase on the effervescent “Angeleyes.”
Cher unleashes her legendary voice and charisma on the ABBA smash “Fernando,” although the reason for her singing it is so contrived that I couldn’t help laughing out loud.
The sequel’s story is an another unabashedly corny excuse to string together a bunch of ABBA songs, including do-overs of “Mamma Mia” and “Dancing Queen.” But Parker’s script is especially sloppy, with egregious holes in the plot and timeline.
Still, when the popcorn is hot, the romances are giddy, and the ABBA songs are bopping, the sunshiny fun of “Here We Go Again” is pretty hard to resist.
Starring: Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, Cher and Meryl Streep (some suggestive material).
— Brandy McDonnell,
The Oklahoman