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The Mummy...and Daddy...Returns
A movie opened last weekend that is well on its way to setting a record. The Mummy Returns grossed an almost unprecedented $68 million on its opening weekend, placing it up there with the box office giants Titanic, Star Wars: Phantom Menace and other highly advertised and much anticipated films. It has received rave reviews - among pro-value journalists who haven't yet succumbed to the self-righteous cynicism of those who equate "positive" and "fun" with "bad" - and continues to top the charts. Kids love it, parents love it, it is a well made movie with great graphic effects and an adrenaline rush of an ending, but for all the special effects, rip roaring action scenes, and gruesome creatures of the underworld, the very best thing about The Mummy Returns is that it has accomplished what few - if any - modern movies have done.
It has made marriage cool.
In the original movie, which itself was a remake of the 1930's Boris Karloff classic, young Egyptologist Evelyn Carnarvon (Rachel Weisz) rescues American legionaire Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) from imminent death, and the two set off with Evelyn's hapless brother Jonathan to uncover rare artifacts and a mythical Egyptian city. High adventure ensues, and both Evelyn, who is clumsy and a little out of her element trapsing around the world she only knows from books, and Rick, whose devil-may-care attitude has left him ill-equipped to deal with a charming young lady, end up falling for each other as a true hero and heroine should. By the end of the movie we know these two will ride off into the desert sun or sail down the golden Nile full of love and hope for the future.
In The Mummy Returns, we join Rick and Evelyn ten years later for a whole new adventure. And here's the truly amazing part: they're married. They're happily, blissfully, wonderfully married, and have been for the last ten years. They have an eight year old son who joins them on their adventures, and every so often they steal a private moment to fall into each other's arms, reminding each other of why they married in the first place.
Their marriage is solid and real, based on mutual love and shared values, and it fits in well with their continued careers and passion for egyptology. They are playful and easy with each other and their son, and tease each other like only those who know they are genuinely loved and respected can.
This is an extremely unusual and rare storyline. The writers don't say explicitly that marriage is good, but they get that message across repreatedly throughout the film, and even make a subtle point, near the climax of the film, of showing the difference between the love of marriage partners and that of mere lovers - I won't spoil it for you: but watch for it as Rick battles Imhotep in the crumbling pyramid. It is, in my opinion, one of the finest moments I've ever seen on film - including, as it does, a subtle shot of Rick O'Connell's wedding ring.
It is true that a lot of movies feature married guys who will risk their lives in spectacular ways for their wives and kids - Bruce Willis battles it out in pyrotechnical splendour with a variety of terrorists in all three Die Hard movies, for example. But in these movies, like many others, this aspect of the storyline is used as a dramatic device, to create pathos, to make you "feel" for the hero and believe that he's willing to catapult himself off an exploding building secured only by a fire hose. Wives and families in these cases are used strategically, to heighten emotion. It's like the old movies with the damsel in distress tied to the train tracks, only these days it's more often a group of hijackers or a seriel killer instead of an oncoming train. It's worth noting that in the original Die Hard, the marriage itself was in trouble, and the couple had been separated for months.
While The Mummy Returns does use the "loved-one-in-peril" device in the form of a lost son, the marriage of the hero and heroine is completely incidental and serves no dramatic purpose. They could easily have been a divorced couple temporarily reunited for the sake of their son. The fact that they aren't, that there's no real reason to show them as happily married other than to show us what a value it is, is what sets this movie apart.
So often in movies, the only people in love are those who are unmarried, or else married to other people. We never get to see a couple actually married for ten years and still in love. It's almost as though, as I paraphrase the Scarlet Pimpernel in the book of the same name, it is unbearably gauche to be in love with one's wife. In a culture that holds up a movie like American Beauty - full of adultery and marital discord, spousal abuse, sexual deviance and pedophilia - it is truly refreshing to see a movie that, for once, glorifies committed, romantic, sexy marriage and satisfying parenthood. Indeed, for as many self-congratulatory academy awards American Beauty was given, it did not make nearly the money The Mummy Returns has in it's first week alone, proving yet again that the majority of real people will take pro-value over anti-value anytime, and will reward the makers of it with their pocketbooks and their admiration.
The Mummy Returns is one of the only movies to challenge the idea that marriage is boring and unsexy. It is one of the few movies that shows how a happy marriage can be fully integrated into an exciting, fulfilling life. It is one of the few films that espouses the idea that a man can be as brave, vital, exciting and adventurous, as sexy and heroic as ever, and as free to pursue his own career and interests in life...and be a husband and dad at the same time. Moreover, he can enjoy being all these things, with no sacrifice or hardship involved. It shows women can be wives and mothers without feeling put upon or without having to abandon themselves, and that a woman with an eight year old can still be as vivacious and vibrant as she ever was.
It's one of the most positive examples we can give our kids, one of the most pro-value, optimistic glimpses of what adulthood can be like if they apply the same principles and standards in their own life. No kid will grow up thinking an army of the undead will resurrect a monsterous insect king from the bowels of the earth...but many of them will likely grow up with the subtle but important message that marriage and family is a good thing, along with whatever adventures their passions will guide them toward.
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