acid reflects

Sometimes we pre-judge a film way before it is released. It could be based on a bad trailer. Or maybe based on perplexing studio studio announcements that don’t seem to make sense. Or just the idea that they’re making a seemingly unnecessary sequel to something that worked the first time around which the makers hope they can replicate. Who knows, it’s the age of franchises, peeps.

But sometimes, the sequel actually works just as well as the first.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
Directed by Ol Parker
Based on the original musical by Catherine Johnson and the songs of ABBA
(sequel)

TEN years since Meryl danced like a queen (ugh, okay that’s not good writing,) we are back on the Greek island once again to the tunes of ABBA’s (other) hit songs.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is fulfilling her promise to make her momma Donna (Meryl Streep) proud to transform their tiny island into a hotel-resort with the help of the kind people of the community and Sam (Pierce Brosnan,) one of her dads who have stayed behind.

The movie then jumps to and fro between Sophie in the present, stressing over preparations to open the hotel, to young Donna in the past (a lively Lily James) from the time she and her BFFs Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn) and Rosie (Alexa Davies) graduate from college in London in 1979 to the separate times Donna meets young Harry (Hugh Skinner), young Bill (Josh Dylan) and finally young Sam (Jeremy Irvine) on her way to her dream island in Greece.

Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again!

Photos from Universal Pictures

At first I thought everything looked so fake (the sets, the costumes, the acting) – but then Llly James appears and the screen lights up, and then everybody just naturally comes along as the story progresses. The cast makes this amazing effort to enjoy themselves onscreen that it’s impossible not to consider that they have made an actual, honest screen family.

I mean, I dodn’t like how the thing was lit. The sets and the costumes (the wigs!) called attention to themselves. The unecessary number of background people. And in the beginning, the actors felt like they were merely fulfilling contractual obligations. But as the film went on, the annoyances took a back seat over seemingly authentic familial warmth from the entire cast.

But personally, I can skip the Cher part. Sorry.

I must note that I enjoyed the first film primarily because of the interactions between members of Donna and the Dynamos (Julie Walters and Christine Baranski are top-notch divas. Plus Meryl? Precious.) In the case of the sequel, the elder Dynamos are still fabulous as ever, and their young counterparts make good effort to resemble their elder versions character-wise.

I can’t say the same, though, for the younger versions of the dads. The young Bill (Dylan) is probably the most at ease with the character as well as with performing onscreen.

And then I thought, well, the movie has no actual conflict. It’s made up of these episodic flashbacks to Donna’s past set against Sophie’s present, I think it’s corny and it doesn’t seem to have any stakes. Opening the hotel is not the story. Sophie’s pregnancy by itself is not the story.

But the film builds and builds on that backstory on how Donna met Sophie’s three dads until that moment in the end when you make a mad scramble for your hankie or some tissue not just because (but also because) Hail Meryl has finally made her magical appearance – but because of that final song, by god, it’s Mother’s Day again. HOW ON EARTH IS THIS NOT A MOTHER’S DAY MOVIE?

Works best if you enjoyed the first movie.

#MammaMia: Here We Go Again, oh how can we resist you?