Mamma Mia, I’m Mad for Movies

MAMMA MIA
I just returned from seeing “Mamma Mia” at the local cineplex.  It was fluff, but absolutely wonderful, delightful fluff.  First class fluff, I’d say.  It was rated 2.5 (out of 4) in our local paper, but I wasn’t concerned about the rating.  I really wanted to see Meryl Streep, hear the ABBA music and see the Greek scenery.  And that’s exactly what the best parts of the movie were.  (Also, I take some far-flung pride in the fact that ABBA is Swedish and I’m Swedish!) It was a really, fun, feel-good movie.  Forget a story line, very flimsy, but that’s not the reason for seeing this flick. 

I sat in the very last row (my preference) with a friend and we were beside ourselves with the music.  The musical scenes are uproariously energizing and I found myself dancing in my seat along with the cast during “Dancing Queen”.  I think every woman in the audience wanted to get up and move with the women of the cast as they danced down the wharf.  That was the best scene for me.  Next was Meryl Streep singing, “The Winner Takes it All”.  She was really quite remarkable, if a bit overwrought.  A pretty good singing voice.  The locations were absolutely spectacular, true eye-candy and made me want to go back to Greece. 

RODANTHE or OCRACOKE?
Before the movie started, there was the seemingly endless array of previews, most of which were sophmoric drivel.  However the opening views of one preview looked startingly familiar to me, and made me sit bolt upright.  It was an aerial view of a single road down a very narrow strip of land with beautiful sea on both sides.  I found myself stuttering, “that looks just like route 12 in Ocracoke” (reference earlier post if you’re not familiar with Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks.)  Then I remembered a funny conversation I’d had with the manager of the fish market on the island. 

OWWA, RICHARD GERE, and “NIGHTS IN RODANTHE”
We’d rented a house for a week on Ocracoke.  One day I trekked over to the Ocracoke Fish House to pick up some of the local fishermen’s fresh catch to cook for dinner.  It’s a very tiny, charming market and is the last remaining fish house on the island.  The Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association (OWWA) is working hard to maintain the fishing heritage of the island. (http://www.ocracokewatermen.org/index.html) And it is the OWWA that runs the market.  There’s always interesting local chat going on in there.  Anyway, the last time I went in, I saw a candid photo of Richard Gere tacked on the bulletin board.  When the manager came in I asked her, “Is that who I think it is?”  She proceeded to tell me that Gere had been in the area  while filming a movie, “Nights in Rodanthe” (Rodanthe is a real town/area that is on the Outer Banks – it’s north of Ocracoke).  

Back to the movie preview … So I remembered quickly that the movie was due to come out and that it was indeed filmed on the Outer Banks.  I think they even filmed a clip on the ferry that runs from Hattaras to Ocracoke, if it makes the cut into the film.  I’ll see that movie for sure, if only to see the areas of the Outer Banks that made the cut, and of course to see Richard Gere! 

JAVIER BARDEM, Mi favorito, por seguro!
In the lobby of the theatre was a poster for a new movie starring Javier Bardem.  The movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, stars Bardem as an artist (a good fit for him) who has an unusual attitude about relationships.  Bardem is my favorite male actor.  I think he’s quite brilliant, is magnetic on screen and has such an interesting, rugged face and a great smile. From a family of respected actors in Spain, I saw him for the first time in the Spanish movie, “The Sea Inside” (“Mar Adentro”) and I was riveted with his performance of a paraplegiac.  So I looked for older movies he’d been in and I rented, “Before Night Falls” (“Antes que anochezca”) .  He was mesmerizing.  It was a fascinating true story of a Cuban poet and the issues in Cuba during the time of the Marielle boat lift.  ”No Country for Old Men”  was truly terrifying because of Bardem’s performance.  Only Hannibal Lector was as terrifying! “Goya’s Ghost” interested me as much in relation to Goya’s life and times as about the fact that Bardem was in it.  I’m currently awaiting (Netflix) “Love in the Time of Cholera” which didn’t receive the best reviews, but Bardem IS in it, making it a “must see” for me! 

Y ahora, tengo que trabajar!