The Feminist Review

I admit, not being a huge ABBA fan, I was a little hesitant to see the new version of the film “Mamma Mia.”  But after an enjoyable couple hours in the theater, a few things stood out to me:

• Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski were the highlights of the movie for me.  As the plot circled around a twenty-something woman getting married, all of her twenty-something tanned and beautiful friends dancing around her, and a large amount of half-naked twenty-something year old men running around, these three women continued to draw my attention. Their beauty, power, and immense love of life drew me in.  Now, I won’t go so far as to say that they are my new feminist icons, but I did truly love seeing an older generation of women respected as beautiful, sexy, and full of life.  With so many movies focusing on youth being equal to beauty, I found these three women refreshing.
• I wonder at what point in life more movies will feature older women as love interests… I often feel as if the older a man gets, the younger his love interest.  I haven’t noticed this in my own life, but in movies I see it rather often.
• When an entire gathering of people are dancing around, soaking wet, singing, enjoying life, and kissing… would it be so horrible for the gay men featured to kiss as well?  Are we really not at a place yet where that could be included?  This was the low point of the movie for me.

As soon as I left the theater today, I was jotting down ideas of what to mention in a feminist review of what I had just seen.  I would love to hear from others who have seen the movie what they thought of the portrayal of women.  I’d also like some tips for how to get ABBA out of my head…

Filed under: movies on August 26th, 2008 by maggiehope