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Saturday, September 7, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN
EDITOR'S PICK
"Mama Mia! Here We Go Again"; Director: Ol Parker; Cast: Amanda
Seyfried, Andy Garcia, Celia Imrie, Lily James, Alexa Davies, Jessica Keenan
Wynn, Dominic Cooper, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Hugh Skinner, Pierce
Bronson, Omid Djalili, Josh Dylan, Gerard Monaco, Anna Antoniades, Jeremy
Irvine, Panos Mouzourakis, Colin Firth, Cher and Meryl Streep; Rating: **1/2
"Mama Mia! Here We Go Again", despite its aggressively lame narrative that
resonates on its themes of family, friends, and the importance of honouring the
dead, is a pure pop bliss. It is both a prequel and a sequel to the 2008
released original, which was based on the 1999 musical of the same name.
The narrative oscillates back and forth between two timelines.
It is 1979
in Oxford. We watch the young Donna, the Meryl Streep character from the first,
now performed by Lily James, graduate from school along with her besties Tanya
and Rosie, performed by Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alexa Davies respectively, who
are incredibly well-cast as the younger versions of Christine Baransku and Julie
Walters. James is competent and it's impossible to take your eyes off her in the
film. Her storyline, hinted at in the original is fleshed out here. It shows us
how she met and bedded the three possible men who would become her daughter
Sophie's father.
The young versions of the fathers portrayed by Jeremy
Irvine, Hugh Skinner and Josh Dylan as Sam, Harry and Bill, are all well-cast in
the sense that they resemble Pierce Bronson, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard
and they sing just as miserably.
In modern day timeline, Sophie, played
by Amanda Seyfried, mourns the loss of her mother as she prepares to revive
their refurbished hotel in her honour. She has marital problems with her lover
Sky portrayed by Dominic Cooper, a love-hate relationship with her unsupportive
maternal grandmother Ruby, essayed by Cher and various non-specific issues like
her fathers can't make it to the hotel inauguration.
The plotting of the
tale is both awfully audacious and intensely lazy. Nothing quite sticks to the
non-linear plot that inter-cuts between the two timelines, as every scene
shoehorns in, another ABBA song.
The film, like its original, is packed
with sing-along-able songs from their albums. It patches together a story out of
the leftover tunes but also repeats some of their better known songs from the
first. Nevertheless, the numbers hit the right emotional notes, except for the
first number "When I Kissed the Teacher" that kicks this ensemble cast film into
high gear.
Those who come for Cher and Meryl Streep will be a bit
disappointed as they have a long wait before they make an appearance. Also with
Streep clocking in a less than a five minutes of screen time, Streep's fans will
feel let-down.
Cher, however, has fun with "Fernando", a strangely
winning duet with Andy Garcia. The musical numbers, like the last time, consist
of a ton of running and flailing, although nobody makes an impression as good as
Lily James.
There are a few scenes that bring a smile to your face.
Especially the scenes with Julie Walters and Maria Vacratsis, the lady who
offers Donna her property for the hotel.
Overall, the film despite its
shortcomings has a musty charm that keeps your toes tapping with memories of the
1970s with numbers like, "Dancing Queen," "Super Trouper," and the title track
"Mamma Mia" itself.
