How Many Minutes Is Mamma Mia Here We Go Again Movie
If y'all loved the beginning "Mamma Mia!" movie back in 2008, well, "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" offers even more—and even less.
The sequel (which is too a prequel) features a bigger bandage, a longer running time, extra subplots and additional romantic entanglements. But information technology'south emptier than its predecessor and has even lower stakes. Information technology'south less entertaining, and for all its frantic energy, it manages to get absolutely nowhere.
In one case once again inspired by the music of ABBA and attack a picturesque Greek island, the 2nd "Mamma Mia!" is the lightest slice of Swedish pastry with the sweetest chunk of baklava on the side. And while that may sound delicious, it's likely to give you a toothache (as well every bit a headache).
At ane point, during a specially clunky musical number, I wrote in my notes: "I am and so uncomfortable right now." Just while the goofy imperfection of this song-and-trip the light fantastic toe caricature is partially the signal—and theoretically, a source of its charm—it besides grows repetitive and wearying pretty chop-chop.
No single moment reaches the infectious joy of Meryl Streep writhing around in a befouled in overalls performing the title song in the original moving picture, or the emotional depth of her singing "The Winner Takes It All" to Pierce Brosnan. Along those lines, if you're looking forrard to seeing Streep evidence off her playful, musical side over again, yous're going to be disappointed. Despite her prominent presence in the movie's marketing materials, she's barely in it.
That's because Streep's free-spirited Donna has died, we larn at the moving picture'due south start, merely her presence is felt everywhere in weepy ways. Her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is re-opening the inn her mom ran—now christened the Hotel Bella Donna—on the aforementioned idyllic (and fictional) Greek island of Kalokairi where the first movie took place. Author-director Ol Parker (whose relevant feel includes writing those "All-time Exotic Marigold Hotel" movies) jumps dorsum and forth in fourth dimension betwixt Sophie nervously putting the finishing touches on the big party she'due south planning and the story of how her female parent originally concluded up on this remote slab of land in the Aegean Sea—and became significant with Sophie in the late 1970s without existence entirely sure of who the father was.
Lily James plays young Donna equally a firecracker blossom child—a friendly mess of wild, blonde curls and loftier, platform boots. (James' sunny presence is one of the film'south consequent bright spots.) We meet the younger version of her all-time friends and jumpsuit-clad backup singers, Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn, doing a dead-on impression of Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Alexa Davies, continuing in for Julie Walters). And nosotros run across her flirt and fall for the three guys she has empty-headed flings with the summer after college graduation.
First, there'due south the skittish Harry (Hugh Skinner), who tries to amuse her with his halting French in Paris. Next comes the sexy Swede Beak (Josh Dylan), who woos her on the boat that carries her out to the island. Finally, there'southward aspiring builder Sam (Jeremy Irvine), who's already vacationing on Kalokairi when she arrives. They will grow upward to exist Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Brosnan, respectively, and they will exist forced into singing ABBA songs that clearly make them miserable.
Ah yes, the ABBA songs. They provided the confectionery connective tissue for the blast-striking stage musical and the original film. This time, the '70s Swedish supergroup's tunes that are the most rapturous are also replays from the commencement become-circular: a flotilla of fishermen singing and prancing to "Dancing Queen," or the splashy finale uniting the whole cast for "Super Trouper." Much of the soundtrack consists of lesser-known songs, and the uninspired way those numbers are staged and choreographed rarely allows them to soar.
Once again, though, these actors are such pros that they can't assist but make the most of their meager material. Baranski and Walters in item have crackling chemistry again. The brief moments in which the supremely overqualified Firth, Skarsgard and Brosnan pal around with each other as Sophie's three dads made me long to see them together in something else. Anything else. A documentary in which they have lunch on the porch under sunny Greek skies, even.
And then Cher shows up. Now, it would seem incommunicable for this superstar goddess ever to be restrained. But equally Sophie's frequently absent-minded grandmother, Cher seems weirdly reined in. Again, it's the clumsiness of the choreography: She just sort of stands there, singing "Fernando," earlier stiffly walking downward a flight of stairs to greet the person to whom she'south singing. (Equally the hotel'due south caretaker, Andy Garcia conveniently plays a graphic symbol named Fernando, which is an amusing bit.)
But if you're downwards for watching A-list stars belt out insanely catchy, 40-year-old pop tunes in a shimmering setting, and yous're willing to throw yourself headlong into the idea of love'southward transformative power, and yous just demand a mindless summer escape of your ain, you might simply thoroughly enjoy watching "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Once again." Don't think, and laissez passer the ouzo.
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the motion-picture show critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television receiver series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here.
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Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
120 minutes
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