The follow-up to the 2008 ABBA-filled spectacular is both a sequel and a prequel. Featuring just as many ABBA songs as its predecessor, Here We Go Again unveils Donna's fateful summer after college when a series of adventures leaves her alone and pregnant. The first movie only hints at the events of that summer through Donna's diary, which her daughter Sophie finds. Sophie's quest in the first movie was to figure out which of her mom's three flings is her father. In the end, she decides she's fine not knowing and is grateful to have all of them in her life.
SPOILER ALERT!
In the sequel, Sophie is focused on planning a perfect grand opening for the hotel she rebuilt in her mother's honor. I'm sure it came as a shock to many people that Donna had died four years after the last movie ended. This turned out to be for the best, in my opinion, because it allowed us to have an inside look at the life of young Donna. The presentation of Donna's past was seamless and kept me guessing and wanting more.
While young Donna's spontaneous adventures were entertaining, I couldn't help but notice some inconsistencies with the original movie. The most superficial was the appearance of the three young suitors that Donna encountered. In the first movie, when the men came to the island for Sophie's wedding, Donna saw them and immediately pictured them as they were when she knew them. Later in the movie, we saw photographs of the men when they were with Donna that summer. They looked nothing like the young guys in the second movie. Their hair and clothes suggested it was the 60's or 70's, but the second movie sets it in 1979. In the flashbacks, the guys look like people you would see today. There was no attempt to make them fit the time period or look anything like they did in the first movie.
Another inconsistency was the timeline of the guys. Donna's journal reveals that she hooked up with Sam in July of 1979 when he rowed her over to the Greek island of Kalokairi. She found out that he was engaged, and he returned to his fiance. A few weeks later, Donna took Bill to Kalokairi to mend her heart with some... A few days after that, Harry turned up and she showed him the island and they slept together. In the second movie, the order is different. First, she slept with Harry in Paris. Then she met Bill, who took her on his boat to Kalokairi. They didn't sleep together yet. On the island, she met Sam and spent a week with him. After Sam shattered Donna's heart into a million little pieces, Bill returned and they slept together on his boat. Also, Donna never sees Harry again. He does, indeed, try to follow her, but he misses the ferry to the island. Once all the guys are gone, Donna discovers she is pregnant with one of them's baby.
When are the movies set? We know Donna graduated in 1979. If Sophie was born in 1980, then the first movie would have been set in 2000, when a 20-year-old Sophie is preparing to tie the knot. Even though the second movie was released ten years after the first, it is actually set only 5 years later, making it 2005. These years don't always fit with what we see in the movies, especially the iPhone in the sequel.
We know Sophie's age, but what about Donna? She had Sophie when she was young, so 59-year-old Meryl Streep was not the most accurate representation of Donna. The end of the sequel may shed some light on Donna's age. Her mother, Ruby, recalls a love affair she had in 1959 with the mysterious Fernando. If Fernando is Donna's father (who is said to have never been in the picture), then she would have been born in '59 or '60. That would mean she was only 19 or 20 when she graduated from college, which is pretty young. However, Donna being born in 1960 would make her only 20 years older than Sophie, which makes much more sense than Streep being 39 when Sophie was born.
Speaking of Donna's mom, she's an anomaly. She's played by Cher, who is only 3 years older than Streep. I guess that's a problem you face when you cast an older lady as a young mom. Streep is currently 69, so if the actress who played her mother was 20 years older than her, they'd have had to find an almost 90-year-old who can sing like Cher (for the record, there isn't one). Besides, Donna's mom is supposed to be dead. They allude to this in the first movie. After finding out that all three of her potential baby daddies are on Kalokairi, Donna says, "Somebody up there has got it in for me. I bet it's my mother." To which Tanya sarcastically replies, "Wasn't she a ray of sunshine?" (Notice the past tense).
Think all that's confusing enough? Hang in there just a little bit longer. 2/3 of Donna and the Dynamos, Tanya and Rosie, display their own inconsistencies. In the first movie, they act as though they know nothing of Donna's three flings. The second movie reveals that they had met Bill, and were told about Sam. Certainly, they would remember the Swedish casanova and the cheating dirtbag who Donna had told them was her baby daddy.
In fact, Rosie actually had the hots for Bill back in the day, as explained in the song Angel Eyes in the sequel. We know Rosie met Bill when he reappeared during Donna and the Dynamos' performance in the bar. She was quite taken with him, which was odd since they only just met. It's possible Donna had mentioned him before since he was the one who brought her to the island. Even so, Rosie falling head-over-heels for Bill is inexplicable.
As far as we see, nothing happens between the two of them, and he goes off with Donna instead. Back in the present, Rosie is telling Tanya and Sophie about liking BIll and being jealous of the girl he was with. Shouldn't it have been obvious to Sophie that she was talking about Bill and her mom? At the end of the first movie, Rosie threw herself at Bill (through song), and they kissed at the end of the sequel. I don't know what's up with these two, but I suppose they deserve a happy ending as much as anybody else.
Despite all these inconsistencies and plot holes, I loved the movie both times I saw it. The music is addicting, the story is intriguing and the characters are entertaining. As for the lingering question of who Sophie's dad is, my money is on Sam.
