Numbers obtained from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes on July 22, 2018.
My rating IMDb Rotten Tomatoes
Critics Audience Critics Audience
9/10 60/100 7.4/10 79% 78%
Recently, musical have suffered great prejudice from both the audience and the critics. Sometimes, however, there is one that conquers the viewers, either because of the story being told or because of the songs, many of them already known (the so-called “jukebox musicals”). That was what happened in 2008 with the release of Mamma Mia!, a blockbuster hit, using the most famous songs by Swedish band ABBA.
Ten years later, ABBA’s songs return to the screen with Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and, as the song goes, “How can I resist you?”
While in the first film we see Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) trying to find out who her real father is (Sam, Harry or Bill), in the second one, we follow the eve of her hotel reopening, when she learns about her mother Donna’s (Meryl Streep) past.
The movie is, therefore, a mixture of a prequel and a sequel. In the 1970s, Donna (Lily James) graduates from Oxford and decides to move to Greece. Along the way, she meets and becomes involved with Sam (Jeremy Irvine), Harry (Hugh Skinner) and Bill (Josh Dylan).
Nowadays, Sam (Pierce Brosnan) is the one who still lives in Greece with Sophie, while Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) visit her at the reopening of the Bella Donna Hotel, to honor her mother.
Although the original film has almost all of ABBA’s hit songs, this sequel has many good ones too, with some songs being reprised and others, less known, helping to tell the story well.
It’s a light and fun musical, with no pretension of being anything more than that. And it is possible to see that the cast knows this and has a lot of fun, dancing to the sound of “Dancing Queen”, “Super Trouper”, etc. In addition, there are more touching moments, with a tribute to motherhood (especially in “My Love, My Life”).
The highlight is Lily James, who delights as the young Donna, and Cher (of course), who plays Sophie’s grandmother, despite having little time on the screen.
Mamma Mia! Here We Come Again is the perfect movie for the current days and a delightful getaway to a much more colorful and fun world.
