Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Ol Parker runs two timelines side by side but does not weight them equally: most of the songs and screen time go to the 1979 strand, and Meryl Streep appears in the present only briefly. The song list is solving a supply problem. ABBA’s best known numbers were spent on the first film, so “Dancing Queen”, “Mamma Mia”, “Waterloo” and “Super Trouper” are sung again, and the rest come from deeper in the catalogue: “I Wonder (Departure)”, “Kisses of Fire”, “Andante, Andante” and “The Day Before You Came”. Björn Ulvaeus appears in the opening number as an Oxford professor, Benny Andersson as the pianist in the Paris restaurant during “Waterloo”. The Greek island Kalokairi is really Vis in Croatia. Komiža, Stiniva and the Franciscan monastery in Vis town were used over 24 shooting days with 340 extras. Cher plays the mother of Streep’s Donna though only three years separate them; Ol Parker said Cher exists outside time. The film cost 75 million dollars and took 482.3 million worldwide, only 120.6 million of that from the United States and Canada. A good fit if you treat Cher being held back 80 minutes, then landing by helicopter to sing “Fernando”, as the payoff. Not for viewers who expect Streep’s Donna at the centre; Lily James carries the part most of the way.