"That's the best kind of party, little girl."
Hello everyone!
So finally.
After apeasing my inner OCD last week with the review of Mamma Mia! from 2008, I can now move on to the sequel. Or prequel, or whichever word you prefer for the movie in all honesty.
Basically, I got all the cogs out of the way and now we're getting to the good stuff!
Of course, as stated at the very top of my blog, you need to be prepared when reading these reviews, as there will be spoilers, and lots of them while we're at it. I figured I should probably smack this into a post again sooner rather than later.
Onwards!
I was wary going into the second movie, thinking I would definitely NOT like it as much as I enjoyed the first. Sequels have a really nasty habit of letting people down.
But this particular one, probably because, hello, it's all those songs we know and love yet again, just didn't have it in it to disappoint. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is the movie to see as the summer ends!
This was how it happened:
we made it a girls' night, because how else are you going to go watch a movie which empowers a young woman becoming a single mother AND running a hotel? Anyway, my friends and I took our time during what was probably one of the last really hot evenings before the rains began, sat in the very last row because that's just how you do, and laughed our way through it.
So buckle up, everyone, because, quite literally, here we go again!
Now, if you've seen the movie, you'll know that there are TWO stories weaving in and out throughout the almost two hour long extravaganza. You have the present-day story with all our heroes from the first group (plus additions), but then you also have the past-day story with the YOUNG heroes, explaining how Donna actually got to Kalokairi and started the hotel.
But, first and foremost.
We learn pretty much with the opening stanza that Donna Sheridan is, unfortunately, no more.
Yes, that's right. Let's get it out of our system now: Donna's dead.
Which means Meryl Streep will NOT be belting out any glorious songs in this one, but as you'll see when you watch it, or if you've already seen, the movie doesn't in fact suffer from the absence (much).
I'll do the review in two parts, explaining the past story in one and the present in the other, because otherwise I'll lose myself with all the ABBA songs.
So after the acapella version of Thank You For The Music which Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) sings as the opening number, just like she sang I Have A Dream back in 2008, we then transition into a very VERY bouncy introduction to the Young Donna and the Dynamos.
See, the story really begins in 1979 when Donna (Lily James) has just graduated Oxford University (wow!) and delivers a speech to her class, which, of course, morphs into the song When I Kissed The Teacher, in which EVERYONE takes part - and a cameo-d Björn Ulvaeus is appropriately scandalised. It has just the right energy and bounce to get the crowd going, starting you off on the right foot as the whole class pedals off to the river and the Dynamos end up jumping INTO said river from a boat aptly named Chiquitita (yes, I noticed).
Afterwards, Donna is pissed off because her infamous mother (of whom we heard a lot back in movie one) didn't deign to show her face, not even at something as important as her only daughter's graduation, but equally she decides that the world is much too big to worry about the past anymore.
She's off on an adventure!
This is also the place for the song I Wonder which didn't make it into the movie but is featured on the soundtrack.
Anyway, Donna's first stop is Paris, where she has a rather hilarious encounter with bathrobe-wielding Harry (Hugh Skinner, who it took me a moment to remember but he was the hilarious twit in Poldark), who mistakes her for the receptionist at this dingy hotel he's staying at. And I swear, his mix of quasi-French and British English is to die for.
Squaring things off - aka Donna does NOT work at the hotel and she speaks fluent English - the pair then head to a typical French restaurant where statues of Napoleon abound, and I swear the servers all took fashion tips from the guy; this is also where the audience gets a first choke-laugh moment, as Harry admits that he's still a virgin.
Since this is the end of the seventies, Donna is persuaded, through an amusing rendition of Waterloo and a little help from pianist Benny Andersson, to, er, help him out, shall we say.
Side note: I wasn't a fan of Waterloo in the previews that were released prior to the movie, but after seeing it in full I LOVE IT. It's just so HARRY that it's unbelievable.
Donna doesn't plan on staying, however, and after she leaves a note she disappears from Harry's life to continue on her trek south towards Greece, because she wants to be 'at the end of the world', and Kalokairi seems like the way to go for her. As is typical for ANYONE trying to reach the island, however, then and now, Donna misses the ferry. Why?
She has a nice chat with the passport-stamping guy, our old friend from the first Mummy movie who first wants to hang Brendan Fraser, then is conned into staying on a burning boat, then gets eaten by scarabs. I'd say passports are a step up in the world for Omid Djalili!
Donna isn't stranded for long, however, because lo and behold! who would happen to be docked once more (or, for the first time, really) where she needs him as one Bill (Josh Dylan) from Sweden, here for a race across the seas, but he's got time to deliver the pretty girl to Kalokairi anyway. He also has PLENTY of time to duet Why Did It Have To Be Me with her, another dance-y number I can never keep my feet still to.
The only sad part of it is poor Harry getting left behind at customs, fabled Head-banger guitar and all (how did Donna get it afterwards? Good question, maybe the passport guy delivered it?).
Bill and Donna, in the meantime, rescue a Greek fisherman Alexio and convince his true love Apollonia not to obey her rather Godfather-esque family who want her to marry someone old and fat, but marry her one true love. Which she does aspire to - luckily Bill's around to save both the lovebirds from drowning.
But he does have to go off to the race, leaving Donna to face a storm on the island alone. Alone? Nah, I spoke too soon, because there's this horse you see, for some reason stranded up at the future hotel, and Donna enlists none other than SAM's help to rescue him. You guessed it, young Sam (Jeremy Irvine) is ALSO on the island, running from his responsibilities.
In quick succession, we then witness I Have A Dream, Kisses of Fire (by the way, the Greek dude singing this is HYSTERICAL), Andante Andante, The Name Of The Game, Knowing Me Knowing You and Mamma Mia, all sung by the young cast while Sam and Donna have their little fling, she finds out he's engaged and chucks him out, and she needs to heal her broken heart. With Bill, naturally, because why the hell not when there's a hot Swede around?
This is practically where the young'uns story wraps up, as Donna is gifted the place which will eventually become the hotel, and realises she's pregnant with Sophie (also, Sam DID in fact come back, but she was away with Bill at the time, and he got a stern talking-to by Bill's great aunt, at least I assume it was her). The last we see of her is a montage of the eventual birth and christening of her baby girl.
As for the present-day storyline, Sophie is back on the island after rebuilding the hotel in her mother's name, but equally she left Sky (Dominic Cooper) behind in New York where he will train with the best before returning. Of course he gets offered a permanent job, and then it's time for One of Us as the two lovers are pulled apart by two different worlds.
Sophie is hell-bent on making her mother proud, despite Sam (Pierce Brosnan) telling her she always did just that, and the moment is ripe for an acapella SOS version which breaks every heart in the audience as Pierce Brosnan portrays a widower's grief over the death of his wife.
People are arriving for the big day on the island, however, so no time to grieve, as Rosie (Walters) and Tanya (Baranski) both come out in full force to support Sophie (even if Rosie bawls every time someone mentions Donna, so this could be a problem with the hotel being named Hotel Bella Donna, ahem). Unfortunately, Bill (Skarsgard) and Harry (Firth) are both absent, but this does give Sophia some time to ask Rosie what went wrong with her and Bill.
And obviously, Bill's a bit of a ladies' man (and Rosie's fancied him forever), which is all explained in Angel Eyes, in which Sophie also admits to missing Sky like crazy.
Also, she's pregnant, by the way. Yup, another baby Sheridan is coming - and this time we know the dad!
Also on the way are Bill and Harry, who, one in Sweden and the other somewhere in Asia, realise that Sophie and her hotel are more important than anything else, so after one sends his twin brother up for an award and the other snores through a contract signing, they're both right back where they started:
aka, missing the ferry to Kalokairi.
Also, they're remembered by the passport guy, who tells Bill he got old but Harry got better.
And I have to agree with mister flirt, age looks good on Colin Firth, like it does on a good wine.
For some inexplicable reason Harry ties himself up to a chair to try and figure out how to get to the island, while Bill reunites with Alexio from all those years ago and invites him and all the other fishermen to the party at Kalokairi. Also present - Sky! Who drags Harry out of the water he fell into while trying to untie himself, natch.
So as the group on the island think they're on their own, Sam declares they're not - and after getting a Titanic remake with Bill and Harry, the entire cast launches into Dancing Queen to get the party started.
But no party is a party without the ACTUAL queen.
Make way for the one and only: Cher.
That's right, Ruby Sheridan, with a little kick from Sky, finally decided to leave Las Vegas and be a proper grandmother, and she's just in time to be told she'll be a GREAT grandmother, since Sophie breaks the news of her pregnancy (really, if you tell Sam, who tells Bill, who tells Harry, who tells many, many people, there's no way to keep it a secret) and sings I've Been Waiting For You as part of the Dynamos, her life-long wish.
Even better, however, is the moment when Andy García, who is Sophie's hotel manager, spies Ruby for the first time.
Can anyone say Fernando?
That's his name, of course, but it's also the title of the song Cher and García sing together, reminiscing about their time together in 1959 when they parted ways. But not to worry, it's time for happy endings now, as we fast-forward to the actual christening of the little boy, Donny, Sophie gave birth to.
Also, no Bill, you CANNOT take your shoes off at a christening just because you're convinced the kid has really nice feet.
After being disappointed that they couldn't have García and Rosie reuniting with Bill (while Hasta Manana plays in the background and he sobs at the mention of Donna), Tanya, the serial bride, meets senor's brother - who is fortunately a widower.
And we're allowed a last glimpse of Meryl Streep herself in My Love, My Life, in a sort of blessing from Donna as the rest gather around the newborn baby, and the circle begins anew.
FIN!
But wait! THERE'S MORE!
The entire cast, young and old, Meryl Streep included, come together to sing Super Trouper as the grand finale of the entire show, and DANG if the entire cinema doesn't sing it right along with them! It's a fitting, energetic, incredible ending to a true summer movie that once again stole the show, even if it's been 10 years since the original. Streep also recorded an additional song for the soundtrack, The Day Before You Came which isn't featured in the movie, but more Streep is better, I say!
So what are you waiting for? Get up and go see this! Take your friends and make a night out of it.
I promise, you won't regret it.
xx
*images and video not mine
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