Mamma Mia!

Last Friday night I felt like Lorelai Gilmore sitting next to Sookie St. James at Miss Patty's dance recital, as children in colorful costumes sporting "Jazz Hands" danced through the aisles. I felt my cheeks getting red and my eyes widening as yet another person burst into song on the TV screen. After nearly an hour, I turned to look at my husband sitting next to me and realized he had the exact same expression on his face. It was about then that we turned the movie off. I would have sat through it, but he insisted that he just couldn't. We agreed that Mamma Mia was just a little bit too cheesy. I'll probably sit down and watch the rest of it someday because I do want to know what happens, but I was definitely disappointed. What was all the fuss about? I thought this was supposed to be one of the best movies ever (or so I was led to believe by various women exclaiming, "OH, that is the BEST movie EVER!").

So, maybe I'm not entirely qualified to make this criticism, since I didn't see the whole movie, but then again maybe I am. I think a "good" movie should be "good" or compelling all the way through. There should be something that makes you want to keep watching. And frankly, the only thing in Mamma Mia was something that kept making me want to grimace, or flinch, or maybe hide my head in my hands in embarrassment.

Here's my theory on all the hype of Mamma Mia. It's just like Krispy Kreme. When I was a freshman in college a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop opened in Orem, Utah. I had never had a Krispy Kreme doughnut. I had only ever heard of Krispy Kreme because magazine articles touted them as, basically, doughnut shop of the stars. This celebrity loves to grab a Krispy Kreme doughnut on the way to the studio, and that celebrity loves having coffee and a Krispy Kreme doughnut while taking a long walk on the beach in the morning, etc, etc. So if celebrities like them, they MUST be good! When they opened in Orem my roommates and I decided to go down and get some. It must have been almost midnight and the drive-thru line was ENDLESS! But we waited anyway and were rewarded with an assortment of soft, warm doughnuts. Oh they were good all right, but definitely not the best I've ever tasted, and definitely not worth waiting an hour for. The same thing, in my opinion, is happening with In-N-Out. Sure, their stuff is good, but, really? You want to sit in a line for an hour to get one of their hamburgers?

And Mamma Mia...it started in London and was huge on Broadway and they sing ABBA songs and ...(insert loud, girly scream here) OH MY GOSH it's a movie now and it's going to be the BEST movie EVER!

Ok, yeah, that was a dumb comparison (and yes, I know I'll probably get slammed by many people who grew up in the Southeast and knew and loved Krispy Kreme before it reached California at all!), and maybe it really is a great movie. I guess I won't know until I sit down and watch the rest of it. And maybe I'll love it so much that I'll take my husband on a trip to Greece, and we'll rent a boat, and I'll row him over to the little island, and THEN...(DOT DOT DOT)!!!