Mamma Mia!

In this dreadful post graduate school quest for a real full time job with benefits, in this soul sucking, incredibly demeaning time, there is Mamma Mia! A summer movie that is what summer movies ought to be, sweet, fresh, funny, surprising, and surprisingly beautiful; I’ve seen it three times, once for every week that it has been out at the theater. My plan is to keep on going until I decide to run away and start my all girl band, or I get a real job, whichever comes first.

The first time Steph and I went to see it we met up with a couple of other similarly minded girlfriends: enjoys musicals, must love ABBA, be willing to embrace silliness. It all made this movie going experience as fun and memorable as it was meant to be, in my opinion. Several of us decided that no matter what, out of respect for other movie going patrons, we would quash our boisterous singing of the ABBA über pop, or at the very least, we would keep it to a minimum. A week before the movie opened it was all ABBA all the time in preparation. We burned up ABBA Gold, singing Waterloo while doing the dishes, weeding the garden to Fernando, spinning around the floor with our broom while belting Dancing Queen. We loved Muriel’s Wedding, and we knew this would be more…much more. We were ready. And we weren’t disappointed.

I have a confession to make. I love Meryl Streep, and I knew she could sing, so I was excited to see her in a musical. I also love Pierce Brosnan, who should probably never sing, but I wouldn’t have wanted him any other way. How he has changed for me over time. From my teenage years completely hooked on Remington Steele, to Bond, James Bond, to Julian, the Assassin on the verge of a nervous breakdown in The Matador, and now Mamma Mia! The cast of Mamma Mia! is fantastic. And I have to say, as much as I love Meryl Streep, Julie Waters is my girl in this movie.

So our first showing we laughed so much, deftly hummed our favorites under our breath and full on laughed, deep, belly shaking, and in some cases hiccup inducing laughter. We, unbeknownst to us when we took our seats, managed so sit in the rowdy section. It was exactly what I needed that day. It was obvious the women behind us loved ABBA, and the movie, and they were not shy about expressing it. I went home, made a mojito and jumped back into the fray of job applications. But before we left the theater I said let’s see it every week that it’s open in the theater. Everyone nodded; we were on an ABBA/Mamma Mia! induced high.

The following week proved even more stressful than the last, a round of applications out and barely a nibble, personal writing projects sliding into disrepair if not out right neglect. We needed ABBA and we needed it now! Another weekend matinee, this one packed with women and girls. It was a rowdy bunch, just our type, laughing out loud, singing along. A woman my age was on my right and sang every song to her daughter. They walked from the theater hand in hand swinging their arms, their walk more a bounce than a walk really. It’s what this music and this show does if you let it. It fills you up with positive, dare I say, vibes.

We went back again today after a week of interviews, and a teaching demonstration, my first (terrifying!) It was a more subdued group at the theater this afternoon, with the exception of a contingency of women sitting behind us, who, like us, had seen the movie before and were ready to have a good time. How we always manage to land in the rowdy group I’ll never know. Mostly folks my parent’s age and older attended this afternoon, though there were still mothers and daughters dotting the theater. The effects were the same for us, happiness, laughter, how could I love it more each time I don’t know, but I like the way it makes me feel. Watching the happy, bouncing, theater goers streaming out to hit the bathrooms or the exit, I know it’s not just me.

I know I’ll own this movie. We own a bunch of movies that we watch over and over again for reasons that only make sense to us, Finding Nemo, Love Actually, any of the Harry Potter movies, Under the Tuscan Sun, Miss Congeniality one and two, The Jane Austen Book Club. Whatever we’re missing at a given time, hopefulness, a sense of innocence or wonder, love, laughter, these movies provide it. They knock us out of our funks, brighten our days, motivate us to try, to care, to love. They dare us to laugh until soda comes out our nose. We watch them in p.j.s while eating junk. We don’t care. It’s comforting, and sometimes it’s just what we need.

People might question the idea of paying even matinee prices every week to see the same movie. But in a time before the multiplex choices were limited, people went to see their favorites over and over again because they weren’t available on high definition blue ray disc. They weren’t available for home viewing at all. Movies got people out of the house, sometimes out of the heat. More importantly, they got people together.

And when I own my high definition blue ray disc of Mamma Mia!, and I curl up in my favorite pajamas with a bag of gummy worms, I’ll think of the rowdys we laughed with, the mother who sang to her daughter, the senior citizens who went for Meryl Streep and left the theater with a bounce in their step.