Happy Happy Joy Joy

Rating: 10/10 (11 September 2008)

This movie made me smile. I sat in the theater by myself, smiling, laughing, and crying like a fricking idiot. I am not an ABBA fan or anything like that, although who can resist Dancing Queen? I was not familiar with the play. I wasn't going to see it at all until this co-worker told me she had seen it three times and still didn't have enough. She said it just made her feel happy and good. I concur.
A young girl who lives in a romanticized island in Greece is about to tie the knot with a handsome but forgettable fellow. The one thing she feels lacking in heart is having her father give her away. She doesn't know her father. She lives with her mother, who runs a quaint hotel for vacationing guests. But now she has the solution: she found her Mother's diary and has it narrowed down to 3 candidates. Her plan is to invite all 3 estranged lovers to the wedding festivities. She believes that when she meets her father, she'll just know. It's a preposterous plan, but this movie works. It might not work for men, but it works for me.
Now Mom is confronted with THE ONE from her past. When they met, he had a fiancé, and he never returned.
Along the way, the characters sing ABBA songs with much glee. The setting is gorgeous. The island has a mysterious, romantic gleam. You cannot imagine living there. It is something out of a postcard, although it is supposedly rundown. The beauty of the hotel and the surrounding landscape makes you believe that anything can happen, even magic. I wanted to be there amongst them, enjoying the island sangrias. I can't emphasize enough how happy I felt when I left the theater. You will believe in love again.