Moon Film Review: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Well, after too long, Your Cultural Correspondent (Film) has made il Ritorno al Cinema. How fitting it should be to see a film with 'Here We Go Again' in the title. Yes, film review starved readers, our return to the cinema was to see 'Mamma Mia Here We Go Again'.

And what a return!

From more or less the first scene, we were in a state of heightened emotion. We never left it for the whole of the rest of the film, although the height got higher at certain points, including in the thirty-something woman at the other end of the row. From more or less that first scene, she spent the rest of the film blowing into a tissue at frequent intervals.

But let's not get too carried away. For there were things that didn't impress us, First up, why wasn't it filmed on a Greek island? There are surely enough to choose from. Then there's some dodgy singing, some dodgy dancing, and most of the young players being outplayed by the older ones.

Of the latter, first mention must be made of Cher who, as per in film, was Chertastic, even if you regretted all the plastic surgery which seems to have turned all her beauty into an immovable upper lip. Then there were Dame Julie Walters and Christine Baranski who were not only excellent, but had the most fantastic chemistry between them. And, of course, Meryl Streep. Hardly in it, on one of the occasions when she was, (listen here) she had the same effect as hearing her sing 'Slipping through my fingers' did on that return trip from Sermoneta in January 2013.

And there dear readers are the real stars of the shows: the songs. Or rather the lyrics of the songs. For, whatever you thought of the originals, performed as they are in this film, they shine out and steal the show. Un applauso to the writers!

Overall, a superb film, even if it was awarded five stars in The Observer.