My my, how can I resist all this fun?
JAS usual we decided to watch an old film on Netflix, being so adventurous. I’d already re-watched La La Land and ended up a tear-soaked wreck. (Please, please, can we have a sequel where Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, still clearly in love at the end of the film, get back together? It’s the least they can do for us broken-hearted fans).
Anyway, after the dreams of Hollywood we switched to the sun-soaked Greek islands – yes, back to 2008 and Mamma Mia. I know the movie is cheesy beyond belief. I have friends who can barely look me in the eye when I tell them how much I love it. But love it I do, glorious Dancing Queen and all, and as I watched it again for the umpteenth time I had a revelation.
Because Mamma Mia is the ultimate antidote to political correctness. The three women at the centre of the film, Donna and her Dynamos, aka Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and the wonderful Christine Baranski, are like women used to be. Sexually harass those three? You could try but any bloke who did would get a thick ear and a swift kick to the groin.
The story, for the infinitesimally small number of women who haven’t seen it, is about Donna’s 20-year-old daughter Sophie, who’s getting married at her mother’s decrepit but picturesque hotel on a Greek island. Sophie wants to invite her dad but has no idea who he is. So, unknown to her mum, she asks all three possible candidates – Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard – who each had a fling (or a “….” as Donna writes in her ancient diary) with Sophie’s mother 21 years ago.
The thing is, Donna, Rosie and Tanya are now middle-aged broads but remember their promiscuous pasts with tremendous panache and affection.
None of them believe they were ever taken advantage of by the numerous blokes they slept with in their raunchy youth. The way they describe it, they had a wonderful time. And crucially – to use that horrible X Factor phrase – they “owned it”.
They were strong, these women. Totally capable of looking after themselves. Never victims. If anything it was the blokes who were at their mercy and command. The Dynamos were in charge.
I positively glow with optimism by the end of Mamma Mia. This is how modern women used to be. Handling everything life threw at them – including clumsy passes – and, crucially they had a great time.
I’m talking about the ’60s and ’70s. How sad that now well into the 21st century women see men as enemies rather than gorgeous, sexy and adventurous friends.