Sophie is back and trying to carry on her mother’s tradition with restoring the Hotel Donna to it’s former glory for if nothing else to remember her mother’s legacy. The film follows the same structure as the original with Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried) it opens with her sending three letters one to Bill, one to Harry and one to her long lost grandmother, though she decides at the last minute to rip the last one up and not send it.
At the same time of Sophie trying to reopen the hotel, the director, cleverly decides to cut to a new scene paralleling a Young Donna (played by Lily James) who is in the exact same situation as Sophie currently is. The choice of the director to seamlessly splice the film together reflecting the “like mother, like daughter” saying is crystal clear as the audience doesn’t have to know much about what happened in the first MammaMia film to know what is going on in the second.
Furthermore, the casting of James as Young Donna is exceptionally done as one can tell that Ms. James, studied the mannerisms and vocalizations of Meryl Streep, who played Donna in a way that is really believable. Her singing of the iconic Abba songs is remarkably done not only by her but by the entire young cast of individuals including her best friends, Rosie (played by Alexa Davies) and Young Tanya (played by Jessica Keenan Wynn).
Looking at the music, I was particularly impressed how the director’s choice in music used as he kept with the “Abba” music theme however tried not to duplicate the songs that were used. Only a few including the title song, ‘MammaMia’ and “I have a dream” were repeat songs, but were done in a new way that helped move the movie along.
A few surprises including the addition of music legend Cher who played Sophie’s grandmother, Ruby who finally decides to come around after Sophie’s boyfriend Sky {played by Dominic Cooper) invites her to the opening of the hotel. Of course, no appearance of singer Cher is complete without a song herself as she rekindles her spark with old flare, Fernando (Andy Garcia) in the iconic song, Fernando.
The film also brings back stars including Sophie’s three dads, Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth) as well as Julie Walters as Rosie and Christine Baranski as Tanya. Of course, even though the film is set five years after the original, it wouldn’t be complete without a cameo song from Meryl Streep at the end.
The only issue I had is with the introduction of Sam, Bill and Harry. As far as continuity goes, the director reversed the order with Young Donna meeting Harry first as opposed to Sam. Not a big deal, but those who know the first one may notice the different.
Overall at nearly a two hour run time, MammaMia: Here We Go Again is a film that will have true Abba fans toe topping along the way, though one might question if it really is as good as the original, the film will captivate audiences enough to make one wonder. The film came out in theaters July 20th and is currently playing in a theater near you.