Academic

Cinema interruptus

By Tung Yin

We just got back from a week in Vancouver, B.C., about which I'll have more to say later.  In the meantime, I'll share this story. . . .

We were staying in downtown, just a few blocks away from a big movie theater.  Having not seen a movie in the theater in a while (the last being a matinee of "Mamma Mia!"), my wife and I decided to take advantage of my dad's presence to go catch a late flick.  The choices came down to "Salt" and "Inception," and action won out over mystery.  After finishing the night time routine with our boys, we waited until they were asleep, had my dad come over to our unit, and my wife, my brother, and I headed out to the theater.

$13 (C) for an adult ticket?!?  That seems pretty excessive, even for Vancouver.  Or are U.S. ticket prices that outrageous now?  (The exchange ratio is pretty close to 1:1 right now.)

Anyway, I dutifully put my cell phone on vibrate/silent mode and settled down to watch the movie.  First, we were subjected to previews for a bunch of horror flicks, like "Paranormal Activity 2."  I wouldn't have thought that "Salt" necessarily appealed to horror fans, but whatever.  The movie started off pretty well, and Angelina Jolie made for a pretty good MacGyveress in improvising weapons for escaping the CIA building.  Then followed some nifty running/car chasing scenes, and the plot was pretty well-laid out at that point.

And then my phone started to light up and buzz softly . . . .

I got up quickly to head into the lobby to answer the phone.  However, the side door that I took did not lead back to the lobby, and in fact, it dumped me into a dark and lonely hallway.  Worse yet, as the door clicked shut, I saw a sign that informed me "no theatre return; street exit only."  Great.

My dad was on the phone, telling me that my younger son had woken up and was basically inconsolable.  I told him I was on my way back.  I kept going down semi-lit passages until I reached the ground floor and found a door to the street, and then I ran all the way back to the condo building and took the elevator up.  When I got back to the condo, my little son was in my dad's arms, crying to the point of hyperventilation.  I took him from my dad and tried to calm the little guy down.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"Uh, I was outside," I dissembled.  "With Mommy and your uncle."

"I want to go outside," he said.

"Uh, no," I said.  "Mommy and your uncle and I were at a grown-up movie," I said.  "But your grandpa was here with you, and I'm here now."

To settle him down enough to go to sleep, I had to read another bedtime story for him.  By the time I got him back down to bed, it was way too late to bother going back to the theater and try to talk my way back in. . . .

A pity, as I was enjoying the movie quite a bit.  Not enough to pay another $13 to find out what happened, though.  I guess I'll just wait for it to hit the "on demand" rental market ( i.e., don't spoil it for me!).

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on August 15, 2010 (boomark / email).