Mama Mia! Here We Go Again Movie Review - Feel-good nostalgia lure

Still from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
U/A: Musical comedy
Director: Ol Parker
Cast: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Pierce Brosnan
Rating:

This totally unnecessary sequel (creatively speaking) features a bigger cast, dips into past histories, re-envisions and re-posits it into the present, making a song-and-dance of it all - literally and figuratively! Despite being less entertaining than the first, it still manages to tap into our nostalgia-laden love for ABBA.

Writer-director Ol Parker criss-crosses timelines to keep us interested. While Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is in the throes of nervously putting finishing touches on the big re-opening party she's planning, we also get to see - in a series of flashbacks - how her young mother (Lily James) originally ended up, pregnant, on this remote
island in the Aegean Sea in the late 1970s.

We meet the younger version of the three guys - Harry (Hugh Skinner), Bill (Josh Dylan) and Sam (Jeremy Irvine) played by Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Brosnan respectively in the first part - Donna fell for during the summer after college graduation.

The ABBA songs make all that silliness worthwhile. Like in the first, they provide the connective tissue to keep us enraptured. The '70s Swedish group's tunes, include rehashes from the first film like the title number, Dancing Queen and Super Trouper, some lesser hits, and re-imagined voices - especially Cher, who makes Fernando her own with that strong throaty entreaty. This film has an enticing star cast, and songs that have gladdened the hearts of several generations - more than enough reason to lure you into the theatres again, I guess.

Watch the trailer:

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