Mystic Pizza is a Tasty Movie

Earlier this month, I had a much-anticipated meeting that was celebrated with pizza. To gear up for this, we spent the preceding evening watching Mystic Pizza, the 1988 Julia Roberts movie centering on three young women who work in a small pizza shop in a picturesque New England town. While I’d heard the title before, this was one of those classic flicks I’d never gotten around to watching, so it was fun to immerse myself in this movie that served as one of the earliest vehicles for Roberts as well as the screen debut of Matt Damon, though his role is of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it variety.

Roberts is Daisy Arujo, a worldly young woman whose promiscuity and lack of academic interest frustrates her mother immensely. Her younger sister Kat (Annabeth Gish) is sweet and studious, but this summer will test her as she finds herself falling for Tim (William R. Moses), the father of a young girl she babysits. Their friend Jojo (Lili Taylor) has issues of her own as she struggles with her aversion to commitment after passing out at her own wedding, which is then called off.

Of the three, the character who appealed to me most was definitely Kat, and Gish turns in an excellent performance that shows us both her intelligence and naivety. Under different circumstances, her blossoming relationship with Tim would be quite sweet, but he’s married (albeit away from his wife currently), and even if he wasn’t, she’s underage and significantly younger than him. You know it’s not going to end well, but there are moments when it’s easy to forget that.

Jojo’s would-be husband Bill is a sympathetic salt-of-the-earth fellow, and Vincent D’Onofrio really shines in a scene in which he takes her to task for her desire for physical intimacy without any strings attached. Also likable is Adam Storke as Charles, the upper-class young man who has won Daisy’s affections, and his response to her actions in the film’s funniest scene is priceless.

While most of the drama occurs away from the pizza shop, it’s a grounding location to which the characters return again and again, bolstered by the maternal management of Leona (Conchata Ferrell), who alone holds the secret to the pizza’s irresistible sauce. The shop itself has a charming starring moment that reminded me so much of Pixar’s Ratatouille that I wonder if the latter film was influenced by it at all. It’s a lovely moment that exemplifies the sense of family this shop has provided for its employees.

Mystic Pizza is a movie that made me hungry, and it’s also a movie that made me smile. Not a bad combination at all.