Went to see Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again… and the way you say that subtitle will probably define what you think of this sequel. Yes… a sequel… a sequel to the previous movie that has the audacity to be ten years old. How is that possible? That movie only came out three or four years ago right? RIGHT?!! Sigh.
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is just as much a confection as the first. Just as much a trifle. Just as much a cheery, just-for-funsies lark that’s so lite and airy, it might just blow away in the wind. It so just wants to be fun and it so just wants to entertain, it’s hard to hate. Anything this non-cynical, non-dark deserves a modicum of respect, surely.
So the new film is set shortly after the death (!!) of Meryl Streep’s character!!! And suddenly the movie is slightly dark… I’m confused why Streep’s not in it. My only theory is that she didn’t get her requisite academy award nomination for being in the first one, so she didn’t want to risk not getting nominated for showing up this time (that’s cynical of me – she’s legit good, but she does just get nominated by default).
ANYHOW, Amanda Seyfried (Streep’s daughter in the film) is trying to reopen the inn on that beautiful Greek isle with the help of Streep’s lady friends, Piers Brosnan (one of her potential dads), and Andy Garcia! Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard show up half way through the movie to help. Meanwhile, we get flashbacks to when Streep’s character was young – now played by Lily James – as we see how and why she slept with the younger versions of Brosnan, Firth, and Skargard. So if you’ve ever wondered exactly the order and reason she got with three dudes so she didn’t know the father of her daughter, the truth can now be told. If you weren’t wondering, then that’s the big ding of the movie. I wasn’t wondering. Were you?
Not that the flashbacks are bad – Lily James is lovely and the three younger guys do a credible version of aping the older actors. It just seems kind of unnecessary… but, then again, who the hell came to either of these movies for the deep plotting anyway? You go see Mamma Mia for a bunch of barely connected excuses to play covers of Abba songs.
Yes, it’s another jukebox musical with presumably deeper cuts from the Abba back-catalog. I’m not an Abba fan… I know the usual songs… Dancing Queen, Fernando, maybe Waterloo… but put a gun to my head and I wouldn’t be able to remember if the songs in this film were also in the first. I think they are new… except for those expected songs (Dancing Queen, etc.). They are repeated for sure… the others, probably not?
I guess this ultimately means I’m not REALLY the target market for this movie. But I still low-key had a reasonably good time. I thought some of the song and dance numbers (of at least the songs I recognized) were good. I respect the movie’s desire to be exactly what it is. No pretenses to anything. It just wants to entertain you. Cynics need not apply… folks who demand sharp writing and complex plot need not apply. Abba fans? Fans of the first. Go for it.
Score: 78