The first film ended with a fun wedding, even two, but the second was potential: Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) married a simple but Greek boy, and the wedding was postponed, and her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) married handsome Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan) , who is revealed without any genetic testing to be Sophie’s father.
Five years have passed. Sophie married the Greek boy after all. Donna left this paradise a year ago, moving to another, undoubtedly, paradise in heaven. Sophie is going to open a reconstructed family tavern on the island – in memory of her mother. In honor of the opening and in honor of Donna, Sophie throws a cool party and invites old friends of her mother to it: her friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rozzie (Julie Walters), and, of course, Harry Bright (Colin Firth) and Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgård). Sam is invited by definition because he is there and lives on the island.
But Sophie does not invite her grandmother Ruby (Cher): her grandmother once disowned Donna and stopped all communication with her. However, Ruby is a real damn grandmother, so she can show up at the most unexpected moment.
Fernando Cienfuegos (Andy Garcia), the current hotel manager, helps Sophie celebrate. Once Fernando lost the love of his life, but something tells the audience that he may find this love again straight from Las Vegas.
We will also learn the whole background of Donna’s appearance on this island, they will tell us where she got this hotel from and how she met Bill, Sam and Harry. And when did Harry meet Sally?
***
To be honest, I’m a small fan of musicals and somehow I wasn’t even going to watch the first Mamma Mia. I love the songs of “Abba” very much, I grew up on them, but then I reasoned that it was better to listen to the songs of “Abba” in the original, so what is this musical to me? However, wonderful actors starred in the film (Meryl Streep alone is worth something, especially since she sings well), the reviews were mostly good, and I decided to watch it anyway.
And he did the right thing, because the film turned out to be excellent, that’s just pure delight. Fun, playful, a little sassy. An island of heavenly beauty, a very cheerful trinity of old friends, charming Sophie, three cool potential fathers of Sophie, wonderfully performed (and, I note, very well choreographed) Abba songs. The plot is quite simple, but it’s not about the plot, but about the excellent mood that this film created.
The audience appreciated it all – the picture collected $ 609 million with a $ 52 budget, showing a luxurious CCU as much as 11.7. And it also meant that there would be a sequel, because such are the laws of the film business.
The next film was released ten years after the release of the first picture. It was not directed by Phyllida Lloyd, but by screenwriter and director Ol Parker, creator of two super-successful melodramas Imagine Us Together (CCU 123) and Now Is the Time. He also wrote screenplays for the film Marigold Hotel: The Best of the Exotic and its sequel.
There was a lot of negativity in the press about Mamma Mia 2. They scolded the plot, scolded the actors who played Donna’s three friends and three friends in their youth, complained that all the coolest songs were sung in the first film, so there was nothing really left for the sequel, except for kissing the teachers, complained that the creators of the picture had the audacity to again perform a couple of hits from the first film, they also claimed that all the characters in the picture are dull and indistinct.
But to me, as usual, all these critics are completely up to the lantern, and in any case I was going to watch the picture. In addition, the film was also released in 4K resolution, so I decided that it was time to change the TV to a new one with 4K support, so Mamma Mia 2 was the first movie for me that I saw in this resolution.
Looked. It started dully: the moment with the kiss of the teacher, played, of course, by Bjorn Ulvaeus, seemed a little strained, and I was already afraid that the whole film would go on like this. However, a little later, the picture swayed, the next number in the restaurant was staged very effectively and performed provocatively, and then everything went smoothly, nicely and cheerfully.
Young Donna was played by Lily James. And Bublik and I, in general, liked her, played well. Of course, Lily did not reach the level of enthusiasm of the young Meryl Streep, but the task was simply too difficult. (And I remembered something about how Joseph Gordon-Levitt managed to play a young Bruce Willis in Loop of Time – it was a high class!)
And young Tanya and Rozzy liked it – here Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alexa Davis, in my opinion, did not yield to Christine Baranski and Julie Walters.
Of the young potential dads, I liked Josh Dylan as Bill, but I didn’t like Hugh Skinner as Harry at all.
A good actor Omid Jalili played a Greek customs officer here. The role is very small, but Jalili, the genius of the episode, played it just fine. However, he also plays the main roles perfectly, it is enough to recall the film “Unfaithful”.
Andy Garcia was just nice to see, but, by the way, his purely scripted role was rather pale, you can’t clear up. But on the other hand, Cher flew in a blue helicopter as a live bait, and Bublik and I must say that at her two hundred and fifty years old, she looks at most sixty, which is an excellent demonstration of the achievements of modern plastic surgery. And by the way, Cher’s performance of “Abba” songs is very interesting.
The staging of most of the musical numbers is excellent, just like the weather on the blessed Greek island of Kalokairi. Sunny, fun, joyful, provocatively, and if a storm suddenly comes up, then the heroes of the picture, of course, will cope with it. Plus, they showed us Benny Andersson again – however, almost only from the back, but we always recognize him from the back.
In short, I liked it, Bagel and I approve. If the first film was a solid five, then this one is a solid four, sometimes with a plus. Enjoy, which is what you want. And what a thrill to watch a movie at home in 4K – that’s just a separate song!
Let’s answer the question, why were English speaking critics and United Statesn-speaking viewers so dissatisfied in this film? No, we won’t. What’s the difference to us? Their discontent is their deeply personal problem. If we liked it, then we liked it. And point! “Meow,” Bublik the cat confirmed.
Mamma Mia! 2 / Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again movie meaning
Director: Ol Parker Cast: Julie Walters, Jeremy Irwin, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Alexa Davies, Celia Imrie, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Omid Djalili, Lily James, Cher, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep, Dominic Cooper, Andy Garcia
Budget: $75 million, Global gross: $393 million
Musical, UK-USA, 2018, 114 min.