Lily James Here We Go Again

"Mamma Mia! The Movie" wasn't exactly crying out for a sequel. Adapted from a stage musical, which was based in turn on the back catalogue of Sweden's finest pop grouping, ABBA, it had barely enough plot to sustain one film, let alone ii. Only information technology also grossed $615 million from a $52 million budget, making it the fifth about lucrative film of 2008. Faced with those numbers, which producer was going to quibble almost a little detail like plot?

As for the writer-manager, Ol Parker, he doesn't come up with any urgent artistic reasons for the existence of its follow-up,"Mamma Mia! Here We Go Once again," only he does arrive surprisingly watchable, and he manages to overcome some mountainous obstacles.

For one thing, the first film, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, was shot on the Greek island of Skopelos, whereas this one has moved to a less idyllic — and less sunny — Croatian location. Parker has to resort to a lot of tight framing — and, by the look of things, a lot of dark-green screen — to disguise the fact that the characters aren't where they were 10 years ago.

For another thing, "Here Nosotros Go Again" doesn't have more than than a few seconds of the first film's star, Meryl Streep. "Mamma Mia! The Movie" ended with her character, Donna, living happily ever after with her long-lost true love, Sam (Pierce Brosnan), so it'south depressing to learn in the sequel that she has been expressionless for a year.

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Meanwhile, her girl Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who was last seen sailing off into the sunset with her oddly named fellow, Sky (Dominic Cooper), has manifestly spent much of the terminal decade restoring her female parent'southward rustic hotel.

Every bit she prepares for its grand reopening, the narrative flashes dorsum to 1979, whereupon it retells the story that was told in "Mamma Mia! The Movie." The story, you may remember, is that Donna slept with 3 men one summer, 20 years earlier, and and then she didn't know which of them was Sophie's biological begetter: Sam (Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) or Bill (Stellan Skarsgard).

"Here We Go Again" shows the states exactly what happened, with the 20-something Donna played by Lily James, and with Jeremy Irvine, Hugh Skinner and Josh Dylan impersonating Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard respectively; Irvine is peculiarly adept at mimicking Brosnan's Irish gaelic lilt.

Although viewers will already know what's going to happen earlier they get to the picture palace, these extended flashbacks add up to a breezily uplifting and youthful romantic one-act, partly due to the input of Richard Curtis, who mapped out the construction with Parker. The new film has funnier, ruder punchlines than the first one did. And when Donna meets the young Harry in Paris, the gauche flirtation between a repressed, upper-middle-class Englishman and a free-spirited American beauty echoes what we have seen in Curtis'south own films since "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

Likewise Read: 'Mamma Mia! Hither We Go Again' Is 'Mannerly' and 'Joyful,' Critics Say

Most of the sharpest lines go to Donna'due south vampish friend Tanya, who is played in the present by Christine Baranski and in the past by the well-nigh-identical Jessica Keenan Wynn. Playing Donna'due south other bestie, Rose, Alexa Davies is likeable, if unconvincing as a Julie Walters substitute. The moving picture's not-so-secret weapon, though, is James. Non only is the "Downton Abbey" alumna a terrific singer, she is so vivacious and luminously gorgeous that it's easy to understand why the iii men should fall in love with her within a week.

In fact, the feelgood romantic shenanigans are so winning that information technology's e'er a disappointment when Donna and her suitors interrupt their flings in order to commencement singing. It's not that the songs aren't excellent: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (who both cameo, of course) are consummate pop craftsmen. Only near of ABBA's greatest hits were used up in "Mamma Mia! The Motion-picture show," and the deep cuts selected by Parker for the sequel — "When I Kissed The Teacher," "One of United states," "Why Did It Have to Be Me?" — just don't have the same catchiness or familiarity as those evergreen karaoke-night staples.

This aspect may stop "Hither Nosotros Go Over again" from existence the box office smash that its predecessor was. There is no doubt that information technology is a superior picture show in near respects: better acted, ameliorate sung, more drama, some 18-carat emotion, and with songs which sometimes have a vague relevance to the plot. But it doesn't have the raucous hen-nighttime energy which made "Mamma Mia! The Movie" a miracle. Well, not for a while, anyway. The political party atmosphere finally fizzes in the terminal act, when most of the main characters reunite at the hotel, and Cher struts into view as Donna'due south diva mother. True, this makes no sense, given that Cher is just iii years older than Streep, and given that the first film stated that Donna'due south female parent was (a) a astringent Cosmic, and (b) expressionless. But it's unlikely that anyone will object to hearing an icon sing "Fernando."

As well, if Donna's mother can return from the grave for " Here We Get Again," maybe Donna herself can be revived for "Mamma Three-a" a decade from now.

17 Top-Grossing Broadway Musicals of All Fourth dimension, From 'Hamilton' to 'The Lion King' (Photos)

A ranked list of the biggest hits on the Bully White Way, as of March 8, 2020 (according to The Broadway League)
17. "Rent" (original product)
Opened: Apr 29, 1996
Closed: Sept. 7, 2008
Gross: $274.2 one thousand thousand
sixteen. "The Producers"
Opened: Apr 19, 2001
Airtight: Apr 22, 2007
Gross: $288.4 million
15. "Mary Poppins"
Opened: Nov. 16, 2006
Closed: March 3, 2013
Gross: $294.6 million
14. "Miss Saigon" (original product)
Opened: April 11, 1991
Closed: January. 28, 2001
Gross: $298.vii million
13. "Kinky Boots"
Opened: Apr 4, 2013
Closed: April 7, 2019
Gross to date: $319.0 million
12. "Les Misérables" (original production)
Opened: March 12, 1987
Closed: May eighteen, 2003
Gross: $406.3 meg
xi. "Cats" (original production)
Opened: Oct. seven, 1982
Closed: Sept. 10, 2000
Gross: $407.7 million
ten. "Beauty and the Brute"
Opened: April 18, 1994
Closed: July 29, 2007
Gross: $429.2 million
9. "Aladdin"
Opened: March twenty, 2014
Closed: Still running
Gross to date: $461.9 million
viii. "Jersey Boys"
Opened: Nov. 6, 2005
Closed: January 15, 2017
Gross: $558.four million
7. "Mamma Mia!"
Opened: Oct. 18, 2001
Closed: Sept. 12, 2015
Gross: $624.4 meg
6. "Hamilton"
Opened: Aug. six, 2015
Closed: Nonetheless running
Gross to engagement: $649.9 million
5. "The Book of Mormon"
Opened: March 24, 2011
Closed: Withal running
Gross to date: $659.half dozen meg
Photograph: Julieta Cervantes
4. "Chicago" (revival)
Opened: Nov. fourteen, 1996
Airtight: Withal running
Gross: $681.1 million
3. "The Phantom of the Opera"
Opened: Jan. 26, 1988
Closed: Still running
Gross to engagement: $ane.25 billion
2. "Wicked"
Opened: October. xxx, 2003
Closed: Still running
Gross: $1.37 billion
1. "The Lion King"
Opened: Nov. 13, 1997
Closed: Still running
Gross to engagement: $1.68 billion