Finally after playing in theaters for almost 2 weeks, my wife and I got the chance to see this musical drama movie. It premiered during our overseas trip and we were keeping ourselves up to date with the latest movies first, until yesterday we decided to see it before it stopped playing in the cinemas. With so many newer films playing, it was quite a challenge to see this since only few theaters still showing it. But lucky for us there was a 7 PM show in a cinema not far from our home. So let us get on with the movie.
Brief Story Line
Movie started with Sophie (Amanda Seyfried - Anon, Ted 2 etc) getting ready for the grand opening of the hotel owned by her mother Donna (Meryl Streep - Kramer vs Kramer, The Iron Lady etc) while her husband Sky (Dominic Cooper - Stratton, Preacher TV series etc) was working in New York. Her 3 fathers Sam (Pierce Brosnan - The Foreigner, Remington Steele TV series etc), Harry (Colin Firth - Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Love Actually etc) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård - Our Kind of Traitor, Good Will Hunting etc) were all very supportive of her works. Sophie was also very appreciative when her mother's 2 best friends Tanya (Christine Baranski - A Bad Moms Christmas, Trolls etc) and Rosie (Julie Walters - Billy Elliot, Brave etc) came for the grand opening.
The story also showed some flashbacks from the year 1979 when young Donna (Lily James - Baby Driver, Darkest Hour etc) decided she want to see the world after her graduation, despite the worry from young Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn) and young Rosie (Alexa Davies). In this adventure, we would finally get to see how Donna met with young Sam (Jeremy Irvine - Fallen, Billionaire Boys Club etc), young Harry (Hugh Skinner) and young Bill (Josh Dylan).
With various challenges she was facing, could Sophie made her mother proud of her achievement on the grand re-opening of the hotel? Find them all on this light, fun and lovely musical drama comedy movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Last night, I read again the synopsis of the first movie Mamma Mia! just to refresh my mind of how it ended. Then I realized that I never completely saw the movie. I might have seen glimpses of the film on TV but never saw it till finish. So I was a bit worried whether I could keep up with this sequel. It was a relief for me when the story was not only serving as a sequel, but also like a prequel using the flash back scenes to show how the story evolved for the first movie.
The story was done quite nicely and the use of flash backs were appropriate and sufficient, without over using it. The way the story was told and how young Donna's complete story unveiled was very lovely. My wife and I were truly amazed by the casting of the film since all the younger version were really good in portraying the characters. Both of us could really imagine young Tanya, Rosie, Harry and Bill would turned up like their older version, except maybe in Sam's case which only had little similarity (when he was speaking).
The love story of Donna, Sam, Harry & Bill were quite lovely but what I felt the most powerful story was actually the relationship between Donna and Sophie. And I also adored the beautiful relationship between Donna and her best friends. These 2 characters were so fun to see and I really believed that the 3 of them were truly best friends in real life. Most of the fun scenes were always involving Tanya and Rosie (whether in the older or younger version). My wife and I had a lot of good laughs seeing them.
The songs in the movie were entirely songs from the Swedish pop group ABBA who was very famous during the 1970s - 1980s. Some of the songs were very popular at the time (and I also knew some of them like Dancing Queen, I Have a Dream, Fernando and of course Mamma Mia!). I personally felt that the choreography of the songs were very good whenever the songs were sung by Donna and the Dynamos since it really looked like it came from that period. Of all the songs in the movie, the songs I've Been Waiting for You and My Love, My Life (which were sung almost towards the end) were really really beautiful. They were 2 of the most touching songs in a musical drama that I ever experience. Oh this movie had abundant scenes that were touching and it also had various scenes that would make you laugh or cry (like my wife who was so emotional during almost the entire movie).
For me personally, I had a great time watching this movie. It was a rather emotional ride and the songs were nice as well. Only thing that I felt might be better if they had made this one into an entirely prequel movie with the older version performed as cameo at the end, because it would give more time to develop the background story and not a bit rushed. Although this way is also fine and quite satisfying. All the cast I thought did a wonderful job to make this movie so fun and lovely. There were also brief performance of the established stars like Andy Garcia and the famous Cher. Btw, there was a post end-credit scene in the movie which my wife and I thought was quite funny.
Overall, this was a nice experience. If you like a musical drama comedy movie and especially if you are fans of ABBA, then I believe this movie would bring lots of nostalgic moments for you. You can still catch this movie playing in several theaters now if you do not want to miss out on it.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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