Have you seen Disney/Pixar's latest film, UP? If not, and if it is still playing in a theater near you, go see it ASAP. It's a wonderful movie, and I hope your experience will be as...um...moving...as mine was.
Hopefully all of you have gone to a movie by yourself. In my professional opinion, a solitary movie-going experience is up there with riding a really great roller-coaster for the seventh time in a row, or having a really great cup of coffee and thinking about the wonderful book you just finished. A solitary movie-going experience to UP is heavenly.
And soggy. And somewhat embarrassing. But still wonderful.
I had been wanting to see UP for a long time, as it had not yet come out in El Salvador while I was there. When I got back to the States, it took me a while to go and see it, and one day after my classes I finally did. By the way, a solitary movie-going experience is best experienced during a matinee showing.
So, I finally went. I walked in to the theater, and my only company were two mothers and their respective children sitting in the middle seats on either side of the aisle. So I settled down in the second row to the back: out of sight.
I was crying within the first 15 minutes. And by crying, I mean sobbing. And by sobbing, I mean, I was making crying noises and had my handkerchief out. I was a mess. I was doing all I could to not be heard by the mothers and children, who I'm certain were NOT crying.
Now, let's make something clear: I am not a crier. It is rare that I cry, and usually, when I do, I feel stupid. Sometimes my thoughts are that maybe a cry would be good for me, but about a minute in I usually regret it and want to get on with my life. So my UP experience was quite the anomaly. And, though I was embarrassed about it, I must admit that I left that theater feeling pretty good.
I'm not sure what the nice thing is here. It could be the movie, solitary movie-going experiences, or the therapeutic catharsis of a rare and unexpected cry. I suppose it could be all three.
Please don't bring up the crying thing outside of the digital world. I'll deny it. And I don't want to be a liar. That's not very nice.
2 comments:
Another nice thing about this post and mid-afternoon tearjerkers: Sunglasses, and their uncanny ability to disguise puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks as you make a beeline for the theater parking lot.
It was also nice smiling through this as much as I did. Way to fess up to crying at a cartoon. I promise I will only comment on it here.
I'm going to comment on it in real un-digital life next time I see you. But, you'd expect that from me right?
My very first solo-movie experience was when I was in Philly. I didn't have anything to do on a Thursday afternoon and saw that 'The Dark Knight' was playing on an IMAX screen five minutes away from my apartment. Those theaters are huge and I thought there could be an excellent chance that I would be the only one there for several reasons: 1) it's on a Thursday, 2) it's at 1:00 on a Thursday, 3) the movie had been out for months... literally, and 4) it was on a Thursday. But, as soon as I walk in, I was greeted with a "Hey! Good luck finding a seat!" from the only person in the theater. He was a middle aged man and he was sitting in the one seat that I would have chosen if no one had been there. I stared at him and his placement for a long time and he probably thought I had taken his jest as a warning. Since I was fighting my gut to give up sitting in this seat I awkwardly plopped myself one row in front and three seats to his right. It was as close as socially acceptable.
This man did provide some interesting conversation though. Turns out he lied to his boss that his kids were sick at school and he needed to pick them up so that he could come and watch this movie. It was not his first time seeing it on the IMAX screen. I nodded my head several times in place of speaking the words that were drifting through my head... several phrases that essentially spelled out: "you're kind of a loser to lie about your kids being sick". After fifteen minutes though I was glad that he was there. He made my first solo-movie quite the memory.
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