I like ABBA, and thus, I also liked
Mamma Mia!, the 2008 film adaptation
of the jukebox musical of the same name, which originally opened in West End. It was an enjoyable movie, and it got Oscar
buzz back then, but I never thought of it as the kind of film that incites clamors
for a sequel. Apparently, I was
wrong. A decade later, here we are, with
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
As a follow-up movie, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a sequel
and a prequel rolled into one (similar to how The Godfather Part II is).
It contains two storylines. The
first one, which is probably set five years after the original movie, follows
Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) as she carries on the legacy of her mother
Donna (Meryl Streep), who passed away a year earlier. By her side, she has Sam (Pierce Brosnan), one
of her fathers and Donna’s widower, as well as Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie
(Julie Walters), her late mother’s best friends and bandmates. But their presence seems to be not enough to prevent her from feeling blue and anxious while dealing with one frustration after
another as she oversees the grand reopening of the hotel Villa Donna – from a
long-distance spat with her lover Sky (Dominic Cooper) to her two other fathers
Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) being unable to make it to the
grand reopening.
Meanwhile, the second storyline
is set in 1979 and follows a young Donna (Lily James), fresh from graduating
from Oxford, and eager to see the world and find her place in it. It shows the particular episode in her life
mentioned in the first movie where she got to meet and share brief, love
affairs with Harry (Hugh Skinner), Bill (Josh Dylan), and Sam (Jeremy Irvine) at
separate moments in a span of days; and how she decided to settle in the Greek
island Kalokairi.
The two storylines then take turns
unfolding in order to draw parallels between the respective circumstances of
mother and daughter.
Unfortunately, if you are big on
continuity, you will be disappointed by this film. If you go and check again the details
revealed in the first movie (particularly, in the “Honey, Honey” scene), you
will find that they are completely inconsistent with the events showed by the
flashback storyline for young Donna. It’s
really a shame that the screenwriters didn’t make sure that the two movies would
fit, especially when the effort required for it is relatively minimal.
But continuity errors notwithstanding, the movie is still as enjoyable as its predecessor. For most of its runtime, it put a grin of my face. I had a decent amount of genuine, hearty laughs as well. Besides, while watching it, I couldn’t remember what was first revealed in the original movie anyway, and thus, was unaware of any bothersome inconsistencies. It was only when I proceeded to do some verifying afterwards that I learned of the botched continuity.
But continuity errors notwithstanding, the movie is still as enjoyable as its predecessor. For most of its runtime, it put a grin of my face. I had a decent amount of genuine, hearty laughs as well. Besides, while watching it, I couldn’t remember what was first revealed in the original movie anyway, and thus, was unaware of any bothersome inconsistencies. It was only when I proceeded to do some verifying afterwards that I learned of the botched continuity.
Actually, the only thing that I
found nitpicky was the casting of Cher as Donna’s mother (not for the 1979
storyline, mind you, but the present one).
Cher is just three years older than Meryl Streep. Those two as mother and daughter broke my
suspension of disbelief. It’s
weird. Weirder still is that Andy Garcia
plays her love interest, who could also be Donna’s possible father. Garcia is six years younger than Streep, and
nine years younger than Cher.
On the other hand, at the opposite
side of the spectrum, the casting for young Tanya and Rosie is uncannily
perfect. Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alexa
Davies really look like the respective younger versions of Christine Baranski and
Julie Walters. Lily James as a young Donna is also some inspired casting.
Anyway, what I like about the
cast in general is that everyone is seemingly having a blast in this film, and sharing endearing chemistries with one another. This is most apparent in the ending, where
everyone involved in the two storylines participate in a “Super Trouper”
production number – the young and old versions of the characters interacting.
All in all, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is more of the same thing of the first movie. It’s not great. It’s flawed and dumb and silly. But it’s still fun for what it is. And, more importantly, it has heart.
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