12 Gays of Christmas
By Tina Wargo
Mamma Mia
There is almost nothing about Mamma Mia that I don’t love. I am so infatuated with it on such a deep, profound, non-intellectual level that I have never even considered, until putting this list together, that the gay storyline it features is sort of wonderful.
As I’m sure we all know, this 2008 adaptation of the musical features the songs of Abba tweaked to be about weddings and estranged fathers. Plus, it’s a giant sparkly ball of Meryl Streep-shaped fun. It’s so unpretentious that it’s often mistaken for being just patently bad, which may be true to some. But the truth I’m choosing to live is that it has no agenda other than to be entertaining and to let Meryl jump around with her lady friends and sing in overalls while rolling around on a boathouse.
And much like The Family Stone, the gay men featured here are just a continued part of the magic. Sure, there are a couple of over-the-top jokes about Harry’s (one of soon-to-be-wed Sophie’s three possible fathers) unclear sexual identity. But mostly, his love for his daughter and the love he eventually finds in a hot Greek local are just incidental to the story, rather than integral to its plot. Which is fine.
We get to watch Colin Firth love up on a young hottie, hear wacky songs accompanied by insane choreography near a very beautiful ocean, and have what I imagine to be all the fun of what a REAL Meryl-Streep’s-daughter’s-wedding would be like ALL IN THE SAME PERFECT HOUR AND A HALF. And that, my friends, is even more special a gift than anything I might hope to find in my stocking.