By Jeanni Ritchie

Tommy: I’m just here to hear.

Mary: That is an underrated skill set.

 

If I had been at home listening to the dialogue in this scene from Castille Landon’s Summer Camp instead of in the theater, I would’ve paused the screen and pondered these profound words for several minutes.

 

Instead I quickly apologized to my friend for the movie theater etiquette faux pas and jotted a note in my phone. I couldn’t forget these words; it was a definite mental health moment.

 

Mary, in a hapless marriage where her needs were never considered, apologetically realizes she’s been talking about herself to old friend Tommy and encourages him to speak instead. Showing what a true friend does, he utters the simple line.

 

Real friends show up. Real friends listen. Real friends allow you to verbally digest life without judgment, including the parts that eventually go down the garbage disposal. They’re there to lend support while you process.

 

It IS an underrated skill set.

 

Finding such friends that aren’t waiting for you to finish talking so that they can chime in or one-up your stories, offer critique on your life choices, or decide your emotional baggage is a liability for their mental health is becoming more and more rare. We’ve turned into a society with such healthy boundaries of placing our mental health needs first that we’ve forgotten the kindergarten rules we learned on being a good friend.

 

Ginny (Kathy Bates), Nora (Diane Keaton), and Mary (Alfre Woodard) are friends who reconnect at the summer camp of their youth and navigate through the complexities of adult friendships and the internal conflicts we face as we age.

 

Also starring Eugene Levy, Nicole Richie, Beverly D’Angelo, Josh Peck, Victoria Rowell, and Dennis Haysbert as the aforementioned Tommy, the who’s who cast of my own youth (Fried Green Tomatoes, Baby Boom, Heart and Souls, Cheaper By the Dozen, Fashion Star, Vacation, Drake & Josh, Young and the Restless, and Major League) had me doing my own reminiscing.

 

Summer Camp is in theaters nationwide. Check your local listings for a showing and remember to utilize the friendship skill set learned in childhood: I’m here to hear!