very simple

As I promised myself, I went to see March of the Penguins today. It was awesome in all of its penguiny goodness. And yes, it had me in tears after about five minutes. Because I’m a sentimental fool. These little animals, over the course of one of the harshest winters anywhere on earth, waddle hundreds of miles back and forth all winter in order to mate and then provide food for their young. Talk about a biological imperative.

But of course, I was surrounded, yet again, by inconsiderate movie patrons. I understood going in that there would be plenty of kids, and the requisite ambient kid-noise to go along with that. I was ready for the kids who kept "narrating" to their parents through the film. But the kid sitting in front of me was beyond belief. I was sitting with my legs crossed so that my right foot hung into the aisle a little bit (as happens with most people). He decided about twenty minutes into the film that he didn’t like my foot there (about 2 feet below the armrest), so he actually pushed it out of the way. I, being a stubborn person who was physically bigger (if not necessarily more mature), and having done nothing wrong, kept my foot right were it was. The kid’s response was to start waving his arms in the air to block my field of vision, and to turn around and stand in his chair to stare at me.

The entire time, of course, his mother is just sitting there silently, watching the movie. I finally had to yell (well, whisper-yell) at the kid to sit down and turn around. Where he began rocking violently back and forth in his seat for the rest of the film, leading me to believe that there was actually something wrong with him. As soon as the credits rolled, the mother grabbed the kid and practically ran out of the theater. It was all so bizarre.

One of these days I’m going to bite the bullet and buy a large flat-panel TV so that I can watch even the "theater-worthy" movies at home.

Tags: movies