Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Sophie and Sky Rymand (Dominic Cooper) are doing everything they can to build up their hotel’s profile. Still, their differing views on how to handle the situation have resulted in growing strife between them. This is not helped by the fact that Sophie is on the ground in Kalokairi while Sky is in New York, having been offered a prestigious, well-paying job that could dramatically change their lives. At some point between films, despite their canceled wedding, the pair did end up marrying officially, and it is evident that, over that period, Sky has matured rapidly.

The story also heavily focused on Donna’s past, exploring her youth and the summer during which she met all three of Sophie’s potential fathers, Harry (Colin Firth and Hugh Skinner), Bill (Stellan Skarsgård and Josh Dylan), and Sam (Pierce Brosnan and Jeremy Irvine). It is through 1979 that we get more information regarding what actually happened, and where the film plays fast and loose with some of the details that were clearly never meant to seed a potential prequel. The most notable detail is the order in which Donna supposedly meets the men and who precisely got her to the island – but I like to chalk that up to artistic rewriting on the part of Donna herself. Memory is a funny thing, and considering the whirlwind of emotions that Donna went through, it’s more than understandable that certain aspects of that time felt different based on her actual level of emotional attachment to each man.

Meryl Streep returned in a smaller role as her character, whose death a year prior casts a pall over everything that Sophie does. Sophie does not simply want to reopen the hotel her mother ran, through good times and bad; she wants to honor her. But this continues to prove a difficult prospect, because Sophie feels adrift. In 1979, Lily James portrays Donna, who, having recently graduated from Oxford’s New College alongside her best friends Rosie (Julie Walters and Alexa Davies) and Tanya (Christine Baranski and Jessica Keenan Wynn), decides to follow her dreams. A bit more of her life is explored through the introduction of her mother, Ruby (Cher), a famous singer with whom Donna has an incredibly strained relationship. We get to see why Donna kept so many things from Sophie, and the reasons behind how she raised her daughter. While it would have been interesting to see Cher pretend to play her younger self against Lily James for more backstory, what we were given was more than enough for the discerning viewer to draw their own conclusions.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was not interested in telling a dark story, but that does not mean that the darkness was not woven into it with incredible care. A good slice of life story doesn’t have to have an active antagonist to be a compelling story. Sometimes, the biggest villain of all is the most innocuous – time. Sam and Donna’s reunion at the conclusion of Mamma Mia had an unknowing time limit, reached when Donna died. Sophie and Sky feel like they might as well be going in different directions, emphasized by their opening duet, “One of Us.” We only have so much time to live, and what Donna discovered throughout Mamma Mia was that she wasted much of it, so she treasured what she had left. It’s a lesson that Sophie and the others learn throughout Here We Go Again, allowing them to treasure what they have before it is too late.

During that summer, Donna did not go straight to Kalokairi. She stopped off in Paris, where she initially met Harry and had a brief fling with him. Shortly thereafter, she leaves for Greece but misses her boat and ends up catching a ride with Bill. On the way, they end up helping a stranded fisherman, Alexio (Gerard Monaco), on his way to stop the love of his life from marrying someone else, which proves that good karma has a long and enduring memory. Her departure ultimately results in her not reconnecting with Harry, who had tried to catch up with her. Finally, she meets Sam during her stay on the island after finding the building that will, in time, become her hotel.

Sam is the one that she has the strongest connection to, which makes it all the more devastating when she realizes that he is engaged to somebody else. After he leaves, Donna reconnects with Bill, on the encouragement of her friends – though Rosie is a bit chagrined because she finds herself interested in him, too. At the end of it all, Donna realizes that she is pregnant but has no idea which of the three men is the father. With the abandoned farmhouse gifted to her, Donna sets out to figure out her own path in this world – with or without the support of a man, her mother, or the world. At least she always has her two best friends.

Additionally, we have Fernando Cienfuegos (Andy García), introduced as the manager of Hotel Bella Donna. He came to Kalokairi to connect with Sophie and help her out, with it being revealed late in the film that he had a connection with Ruby in the past. The possibility that he is Sophie’s grandfather is floated, but, much like who her father is, the truth of the situation is not clarified during the film itself.

Like its predecessor, this was a jukebox musical, and as I mentioned in my previous review, it was discussed at length which songs might be chosen to fill out the runtime because ABBA’s most popular songs were all in the original. The songs that they went with, while also having to craft an original story that did not overly conflict with what little material was given in dialogue and implication, proved to be as effective as Mamma Mia. Sometimes, hardship proves to be little more than a suggestion if you’re willing to put in the work to figure out a path forward.

Discussions have been ongoing in the last few years about continuing with a third film. While I can’t say one way or the other if anything will come of it, I am always interested in exploring more of a character’s story.