Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again review: Only for fans of ABBA, spandex, and glitter

Thankfully, there is a sizeable enough part of the audience with a high tolerance for just such a mixture

Ol Parker, 114 mins, starring: Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård,

If you don’t like ABBA, spandex or glitter, you won’t much enjoy the Mamma Mia! sequel. The producers warned the audience as much before the film’s premiere in Hammersmith on Monday night. Fans of good-natured kitsch however, will relish the movie, even if it does have more than its share of toe-curling moments. The reboot benefits from an ingenious storyline – co-written by Richard Curtis – which unfolds in two parallel worlds.

In the present, Sophie (Seyfried) is on the Greek island of Kalokairi. She is pregnant, mourning the death of her mother Donna (Streep) but planning a huge party to launch the hotel, which she is calling The Belladonna. The question is, will any of the guests she has invited actually turn up?

Back in the late 1970s, Donna (played as a young woman by James) has just left university and headed to Greece, via Paris, for the first time. In short order she meets and has flings with the three younger versions of the Firth, Skarsgård and Pierce Brosnan characters, played respectively by Hugh Skinner, Josh Dylan and Jeremy Irvine. Any one of them could be Sophie’s father.

The ABBA songs flow thick and fast, performed with varying degrees of conviction and accomplishment. Benny and Björn from the band have blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos and for an overture, we see James belting out “When I Kissed The Teacher” at a university graduation event where she is supposed to be giving the valedictory speech.

The effervescent James may not look much like a younger Streep but she is likeable and energetic enough as Donna to breeze through even the most cheesy scenes.

Certain episodes are reminiscent of moments in earlier Curtis-scripted rom coms – no one writes dithering British masculinity quite like him. Here, young Harry’s tortuous use of French and charmingly gauche attempts at talking Donna into bed can’t help but evoke memories of Notting Hill and Four Weddings And A Funeral.

In the role, Hugh Skinner has the same awkward charm as Hugh Grant in those movies or as Firth as the older Harry here, forever finding new ways of tying himself in knots

The film boasts a big ensemble cast and the storytelling proceeds across very democratic lines. Each of the many stars is given at least a moment in the spotlight. Inevitably, the ancient but still preternaturally glamorous Cher upstages almost everyone else in a duet she shares with a twinkly-eyed Andy Garcia.

Julie Walters and Skarsgård get to share a song too. Celia Imrie is on screen for minute or two as the vice-chancellor but registers strongly and so does Omid Djalili as a customs officer who can’t help making personal comments about the appearances of anybody whose passport he has to stamp.

The songs are shoe-horned to match events in the plot and it isn’t always a comfortable fit. Visually, the film resembles one of those glossy, Wish You Were Here holiday programmes Judith Chalmers or Cliff Michelmore used to present in ancient times. The sun is nearly always shining – unless the story calls for a sudden, violent storm – and moussaka is always in the oven.

It would be churlish to complain Here We Go Again is often as sickly sweet as the Greek pastries Donna’s friends Tanya and Rosie eat whenever they encounter romantic disappointment; sentimentality has always been part of the Mamma Mia! mix.

With so many songs to accommodate, it’s a small miracle writer-director Ol Parker and his team have managed to give the film the mild complexity it possesses. They’ve also managed to keep affairs cheery and upbeat. Nothing causes too much dismay.

The characters here take bereavement, sexual betrayal and the passing of the years in their stride. The producers are trying to ensure plot spoilers don’t leak out. Suffice it to say this is one of those movies in which not even death itself can stop some characters putting in an appearance.

After a sluggish World Cup month, the British cinema box office needs a boost and Mamma Mia! looks bound to provide it. This is a sequel without a hint of cynicism. If you don’t like ABBA, spandex and glitter it will make you come out in hives but there is a sizeable enough part of the audience with high tolerance for just such a mixture.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again hits UK cinemas 20 July.