Review: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Here we go again, indeed! The gang's all here in this hugely irresistible follow-up to the surprise 2008 smash jukebox musical Mamma Mia! and, just as with the original, this film is a joyously infectious concoction that promises and delivers an absolute good time. Plus it has Cher in peak camp Cher mode, blessing viewers with a rendition of "Fernando" that is so fantastic that experiencing it might induce a kind of rapturous hysteria.

This is the thing about Mamma Mia! and its sequel. Both feature a gossamer narrative framework that is there as an excuse to string together a procession of crowd-pleasing ABBA tunes. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that - Hollywood musicals have been doing it since the days of Gold Diggers and 42nd Street - and the main point of musicals is to move you with the sung, not spoken, word, to stir up a whirlpool of emotions with melodies rather than monologues, and to immerse you into pure escapism. If you don't find yourself rendered even a little bit helplessly delighted by Here We Go Again's charm offensive, then you might need to check if you have a heart.

Taking place five years after the first film, Here We Go Again concerns itself with two parallel storylines. One follows Donna's daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) as she prepares to re-open her mother's inn on the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi. Her endeavour is the perfect excuse for the original film's cast to reconvene. There are Donna's best friends and former bandmates Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), along with Sophie's three dads - architect Sam (Pierce Brosnan), banker Harry (Colin Firth), and sailor and travel writer Bill (Stellan Skarsgård). If the main plot of the first film revolved around the question of Sophie's paternity, then the second flashes back into the past to depict exactly how the confusion was entirely plausible.

Donna may not be on par with the most complex roles of Meryl Streep's long and storied career, but it is still a big ask of any actress to take on the younger version of a role essayed by the three-time Oscar winner. Not only do they have to incorporate Streep's version of Donna but also make Donna very much their own. So applause applause to Lily James, radiating earthiness, vitality and vulnerability and who absolutely commands every frame of the film in which she appears. Major credit should also be given to Kathleen Chopin and Nina Gold, who have cast the perfect actors to be the younger versions of the film's characters. Jessica Keenan Wynn, especially, delivers a pitch-perfect rendering of Baranski's Tanya. Baranski, as ever, gets all the best lines. "Be still my beating vagina," she utters upon sighting Andy Garcia's Señor Cienfuegos.

The musical numbers are staged with verve with "Waterloo" the arguable standout, managing to incorporate the choreography of Busby Berkeley, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, and Susan Stroman whilst retaining the sheer silliness of a Laugh-In sketch. Then there is the absolute showstopper that is "Fernando," which culminates in a backdrop of fireworks as Cher's Ruby croons to her lover, long lost and now happily found. The film ends with a crowd-pleasing finale that gathers its whole ensemble, decks them out in feathers and sequins, and lets them revel in the absolute, guilt-free fun and delight of it all.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Directed by: Ol Parker

Written by: Ol Parker

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Meryl Streep, Cher, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Andy Garcia, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Alexa Davies, Jeremy Irvine, Hugh Skinner, Josh Dylan, Celia Imrie