Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

[osprey_archer]

At last I have seen Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! Which was not quite as good as the first one, in my opinion - the songs aren’t quite as propulsive (except for “Waterloo”) and the movie as a whole isn’t as high-energy, and why did they kill of Donna Sheridan? - but it was still a lot of fun to see most of the old gang all together again. There’s a scene where Sophie sings with the Dynamoes which is touching, if Donna had to be dead.

I also really enjoyed the parts of the movie that chronicle Donna’s youth. Lily James is simply luminous as young Donna; in fact I thought they did a great job casting all the young versions of the older cast. I’m not entirely sure how Hugh Skinner could grew into Colin Firth, but he’s nonetheless hilarious, and I could 100% see young Harry being exactly that awkward, he’s learned to mask it more as he gets older but his innate awkwardness still pokes out at moments.

(But I’m still not convinced that Donna had to be dead. They could have come up with another plot, surely?)

Comments

[osprey_archer]

That makes a certain amount of sense, but at the same time, as you say, why have that be a thing in the first place? Especially given that Cher's character contradicts what Donna said about her mother in the first movie: it's been a while since I've seen it, but IIRC her mother either disowned her or at least intensely disapproved of the number of men that she slept with. Cher's character doesn't mention that at all; it seems like she's stayed away mostly because she can't bear to admit she's a grandmother.

[troisoiseaux]

RIGHT? I assumed it was the out-of-wedlock thing rather than quantity, but yeah, definitely did not get the impression that Donna's mom was some high-flying pop superstar with her own scandalous past.

Also, I may have mixed up my timeline of the movie, but I feel like having Donna's mom show up was weird considering that - in my, again, potentially inaccurate memory - they'd just positioned the woman who owned the tavern/gave Donna the hotel as a kind of mother figure to her (helping out when Sophie was born, etc.) Idk, I'm super weak for found families so I would have liked to see them play more with that, rather than the whole SURPRISE, CELEBRITY CAMEO thing.

[osprey_archer]

I think they had Cher show up because they wanted to work in the song Fernando somehow and they just didn't think about the fact that it made very little sense to have Sophie's grandma's big number be about her reconciliation with some guy introduced in this movie solely for this song, rather than, you know, her reconciliation with her granddaughter. Or her daughter, if they had left Donna alive.

Plus they dropped the tavern-owner-as-surrogate-mother plotline entirely once Cher showed up. Maybe they figured she'd served her purpose once she turned the farmhouse over to Donna? But they could have gotten so much more out of it.

Basically I think this is an example of filmmakers prioritizing heterosexual courtship over bonds between women even though the set-up means that focusing on the family relationships would make so much more sense and also offer way more emotional payoff than "Suddenly, Fernando!"

[troisoiseaux]

Yeah. Basically......................... yeah, to all of the above. SIGH.

(Also, speaking of the overprioritizaion of heterosexual courtship, CAN COLIN FIRTH FIND LOVE. PLEASE. I understand that it may be confusing to introduce a 4th dad in the mix at this stage but like... considering the And Suddenly Fernando subplot just discussed... I take that back, it really wouldn't!)

[osprey_archer]

WHY COULDN'T COLIN FIRST FALL FOR FERNANDO.

Then they could still have the song, AND the grandmother's storyline could have focused on her reunion with Sophie/possibly Donna who was still alive in this version of the film!