Man Card

Okay, it is confession time: I watched “Mamma Mia!” yesterday!! Take my man card. Rip it to shreds; pass it to someone who can actually use a power tool or simply hold on to it. I had two thoughts after watching this movie: 1) I need to confess this immediately, and 2) whoever thought Pierce Brosnan could sing needs to be slapped in a bad way!!!

Here are the gory details: it was a rainy Sunday afternoon. I had already watched Tom Watson gack up the British Open and there was not one single baseball game on. This is that time of year where we really need to jump to football season.

My wife had rented the movie because she wanted to see it. She had already declared that she knew no one else wanted to watch it, but I felt the desire to simply share the experience with her. She didn’t ask or expect me to watch, but I thought if nothing else I will earn some “Good Husband Credits.”

I watched this movie and was torn between feelings of shame and feelings of being wrapped into this story of a young woman trying to figure out who her father really is. On so many levels the story is tragic because there is a young woman without a true identity. The hormones of her mother’s youth and the consequences that are reaped twenty years later paint a backdrop that is far too realistic for many people in our society today.

I know this is a critically acclaimed musical and the movie is some great feat of theater, but the tragedy of a life spent in desperation and wonder is an episode that does not promote good theater to me. I found the ending to bring neither hope nor fulfillment.

I’m not trying to turn this into some Siskel and Ebert moment, but worldviews are reflected in art and culture today in such a way that values and mores of societies are stamped in the conscience. On one level, it is simply a movie experience that filled the gap of a rainy afternoon. On another level it is a social commentary that leaves me empty and frustrated. If you enjoyed the movie or the musical, I have no problem with your point of view. For me, the fact that the movie was a “chick flick” was the least of my real concerns. It left me grateful to know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and who knows me inside and out.

I think I am going to rent a good John Wayne flick tonight!!!