A Few Film Single Moms

Most all mainstream popular movies have a man and a woman together at the end. I don’t think the majority of these have a huge amount of substance, or are the ones winning Academy Awards, but they seem to be the ones that a lot of people want to see. I could list tons of movies off the top of my head that end with the long-anticipated final kiss as the camera circles and zooms farther and farther out.

Anyways, coming back to that, my single-mom-portrayal for class tomorrow is the movie Mamma Mia. FYI, catchy songs and everything, but I didn’t love it. The single mom in this movie, Donna, played by Meryl Streep, is running her own inn on a Greek paradise island. Unfortunately, the place is falling apart. We hear about all of her worries and stress about her business in the song “Money Money Money,” in which she laments not having a wealthy man. (Who doesn’t love ABBA?!) (Here it is with the lyrics if you are interested.) But still, she’s shown as a pretty capable (walks around with a toolbelt at one point) wacky free-flying single mom. She fits Jane Juffer’s “single moms are hot” comment with her long bleach blonde hair and tight overalls (and she’s definitely over 50—more power to her). Her daughter, who is getting married, secretly sends letters to her 3 possible fathers, inviting them to the wedding. Donna is tired out, says she is lacking in the sexual gratification area, (Juffer cites that sex is seen as an “impediment which should be cleared for the single mom to function as a better mom”) and it takes the arrival of the 3 men and her two completely insane middle-aged bff’s to snap her out of it and remind her that she’s still a “Dancing Queen.” This movie is of course just about as frothy as you can get, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. She winds up with Pierce Brosnan who should never sing again in public in his life. Apparently they will be able to pick up right where they left off as teenagers and they conveniently get married right then and there in place of her daughter.

Thinking about this made me try and come up with a movie about a woman, let alone a single mom, who doesn’t have to end up with a man in the end. And then I remembered Waitress, starring Keri Russell. Her character is pregnant by her chauvinist, controlling husband Earl, and is not originally enthusiastic about the thought of the baby. She has an affair with her doctor, but refreshingly ends up without a man. The final scene shows her and her daughter walking hand in hand.