8.25.2007

The Power of the Sister Act

... There's a question that's been tossed around the corner of my office this summer about the movie you'd drop everything to watch if you found it on TV ...

For me, there's about a half dozen, I could name off the top of my head -- Field of Dreams, Ocean's 11, That Thing You Do!. Independence Day got me to drop everything a few weeks ago. And today, Sister Act 2 did it ...

Ah, Sister Act 2. Having seen and loved the first Sister Act, my parents took my brother and I to the movie theater on New Year's Eve 1993 to see Sister Act 2. Good, funny, uplifting story. Amazing music. And it's stacked -- Whoopi Goldberg and all the classic characters from original film, not to mention the legendary James Coburn, and the kids choir that includes Lauryn Hill and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

I've loved the movie since the night I saw it ... and it never fails to capture me again and again ...

So Kates and I had come home from doing some errands today and she began flipping through the TV channels while I made some lunch ... She stopped on Sister Act 2, just as the St. Francis choir was loading the bus to go off to the state music competition. It's at a point in the movie where the choir is finally coming together and tensions are rising between Rita (Lauryn Hill's character) and her mother, who doesn't agree with Rita's desire to sing and study music ...

The rest of the movie takes you through the competition as several choirs perform well. And as the St. Francis kids watch, they begin to believe they can't beat any of the other choirs; they want to quit. But Sister Mary (Whoopi Goldberg) tells them "to wake up and pay attention" and the choir heads to the stage ...

The choir sings the most dazzling, electrifying performance of "Joyful, Joyful," you've ever heard or seen, and the crowd responds with a thunderous applause ... Then some dramatic music plays as the emcee of the competition begins to name the winners. As choir after choir streams onto the stage to receive their trophies, you see the St. Francis kids waiting in the wings, hands folded, heads buried ...

Then, the winner is announced ... and it's St. Francis Academy. The choir members run on to the stage leaping and screaming ...

The moment gets my heart-pumping every time! And today, like every other time, the tears were streaming down my cheeks ...

When the moment was over, Kates peeked over at me as I was wiping the tears away. Her eyes had welled up too ...

"EVERY-time!" I said.

"I know," she answered. "I just thought it was my hormones ... "

Here's that Joyful, Joyful performance, sans the awards presentation that comes in the minutes afterward ... (... And if you want more, the "Oh Happy Day" scene and the end credits are great too ... Am I a dork or what!?)

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