Oh god oh god oh god. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is pregnant, but she doesn’t know how she’s going to cope. So we get what looks like a flashback film with all the key characters’ younger selves, so we can see how her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) coped with being a single mum.
Lily James plays young Donna, with Alexa Davies and Jessica Keenan Wynn playing younger versions of Donna’s Dynamo bandmates Rosie and Tanya. And yes we also get young Colin Firth, young Pierce Brosnan and young Stellan Skarsgard.
What we don’t get is much Meryl – whose character is spoken about in the past tense. Is she dead? Has she done a runner at the prospect of nappies and baby sick? Or am I projecting at the thought of my children one day expecting me to babysit when I’ll just want to go clubbing again for the first time in 1000 years in smoky dives that only play 90s guitar bands?
I really, really wanted to love this trailer, but it just seems cringy (and I liked Grease 2 – it’s not like I spend my time stroking my chin while debating the merits of French avant garde cinema).
Luckily it starts looking up in the very last seconds, when who should arrive but Cher, playing Ruby Sheridan, Sophie’s grandmother – resplendent in a gorgeous white trouser suit, platinum blonde wig and shades.
She may not have been invited to Sophie’s party, but as she points out, those are the best kinds of parties.
And while yes, I am well aware that parties I am not invited to are probably the best ones thank you Cher, NOW I want to go to a party with Cher (once I’ve been disco dancing with Jamie Bell and Annette Bening from Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, obviously).
Cher and I do have history, as I’ve been doing her Cher Fitness: A New Attitude workout DVD on and off since 1991 (by which I mean 1991-1993, 1999-2000, and 2015-just last week actually).
And yes I am filling up this article with stuff not remotely relevant to the film as I really, really, really wanted to love the trailer and I just didn’t and dissing it would be like criticising John Wick’s laundry skills just after his cute puppy was murdered.
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, a title that will be a gift to movie reviewers if the film isn’t up to scratch, comes out July 20 2018 in the USA and Sweden, and July 27 2018 in the UK. The movie is written and directed by Mr Thandie Newton, Ol Parker.
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