The trouble starts in the film’s Godfather: Part II-esque flashbacks, which illustrate that crazy summer when Donna Sheridan (in her younger years, played by Lily James in her older years, played by a pair of overalls filled with Meryl Streep) found love three times over with a trio of eligible foreign bachelors. (Warning: spoilers and excessive pedantry follow.)
At least, if you’re the kind of nut who’s kept awake at night by questions about how the cars in Cars make baby cars. It’s got catchy tunes, and sunny skies, and the widest bell-bottoms in all the land it casts Andy García as a mysterious hunk named Fernando, solely for the purpose of carting out Cher to belt ABBA’s 1976 hit “Fernando.” It gives the people what they want.īut still: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again-which should ideally be referred to by its complete canonical title, exclamation point included-plays fast and loose with time and space, enough to occasionally distract from the movie’s myriad pleasures. There’s no use getting upset about the sloppy framing of something like Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the cinematic equivalent of a golden retriever puppy-panting, happy-go-lucky, almost pathologically eager to please.