Mamma Mia! made over $615 million worldwide in ticket sales, hence Here We Go Again, the well-named sequel to the 2008 hit. Except, in a clever twist, it’s not only a sequel. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (let’s just call it MM II) is also an origin story showing how Donna, played in the original by Meryl Streep, made her way after graduating from an English college (via a romantic Paris interlude) to the Greek island of Kalokairi, guided only by her dreams.
In a bittersweet opening note, we learn of Donna’s death a year earlier. Her perky daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is determined nonetheless to transform mom’s island villa into a hotel fit for the high-end tourist trade. She inherited mom’s faith in dreams, as well as her determination to carry on against all obstacles. The second bittersweet note: Sophie’s boyfriend, Sky (Dominic Cooper), away in New York, has received a job offer and they break up while talking on their cell phones. Well, better that than a Facebook post. Sophie is undeterred. What’s a little heartache when it’s time to open that hotel and fulfill mom’s dream—and her own.
Much of MM II consists of flashbacks to 1979, mostly well edited into the contemporary scenes and tracing free-spirited young Donna (Lily James) as she discovers her Greek island paradise. And yes, she encounters three men of her dreams—all of them plausible fathers for Sophie and played by actors (Jeremy Irvine, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner) who are reasonable youthful stand-ins for the men we know as the loves of Donna’s life: Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) and Harry (Colin Firth).
Sam is already on the isle to celebrate the hotel’s opening. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that the other two eventually make it, joining mom’s college friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters). The big if concerns the arrival of Sophie’s long estranged grandmother, Ruby. But since Ruby is played by Cher, odds are the family will be together by the end.
MM II lacks the bright panache of MM I, partly because it lacks Meryl Streep in the starring role. And this time, the song and dance numbers won’t make fans of classic Hollywood forget about Singin’ in the Rain. But the fashions are fun to look at and who wouldn’t want to spend a night at Sophie’s hotel? The greatest ABBA hits were used up last time, but Brosnan gives a remarkably rueful meditation on “SOS.” Despite recognizing that life includes losses as well as dreams that come true, MM II maintains a frothy tone, amusing if less than laugh-out-loud. And yes, a postcard island on the Mediterranean seems like a great escape in troubled times and the story’s idea of undying loyalty among friends is comfort food for the soul.
