Review

Today, for the first time in months, I went to the movies. For someone who loves movies as much as I do, I sure don't go very often anymore. I used to go all the time, probably about once a week, and beyond just seeing the latest release movie I really enjoyed the experience of going to the cinema. It's much more engaging than watching a movie at home, the atmosphere in the theatre is different. If you're out of the house, sitting in the dark in front of an enormous screen and surrounded by speakers I think it's far easier to suspend your disbelief and lose yourself in a movie. For the duration of the film you can be somewhere else or someone else if that's what you want. This is probably more desirable if you're watching largely escapist fare but the cinema also provides a distraction-free environment, making it easier to concentrate if you happen to be watching a film that's a little deeper than the latest blockbuster.

I normally go to the movies alone but today I went with a couple of my friends who were heading out and asked if I'd like to tag along. I'm really glad I did because I don't think I could have spent my afternoon any better than watching No Country For Old Men. Perhaps it's not the sort of movie you can say you enjoyed but I walked out of the theatre thinking about what a great film it was. I know at least a few of the people sitting around us didn't feel that way because as soon as the credits came up I heard a couple of twenty-something guys mutter to one another, "Who picked this movie? It sucked," or something to that effect. I got the impression it was a view shared by at least a few other people in the cinema and, although I didn't agree, I wasn't really surprised.

We saw the film at a busy shopping centre and were a little confused when we made our way into the theatre and had to settle for terrible seats two rows from the front because the cinema was practically full. Given the subject matter of the film, my friends and I hadn't expected such a crowd. If we had been seeing I Am Legend then we wouldn't have thought twice, nor would we have thought the crowd odd if we'd gone to see the film at an art house theatre but we were at a shopping centre and we were seeing a Coen Brothers film. It's usually the Farrelly Brothers or, going back a few years, the Wachowski Brothers packing out the multiplexes, not the Coens. Their films tend not to have the same sort of mainstream appeal.

I laughed to myself when I heard 'it sucked' from somewhere behind me but I started to wonder about the sort of person who, with such a shallow analysis, reduces such a complex film to those two words. I don't think everyone has to like the film and I can appreciate why a lot of people won't like it, because it's not a simple, conventional film that ties up every loose thread in a happy ending. Although it's not the sort of movie that will leave you smiling, it is a fantastic film and it will get you thinking. That is, if you don't instantly dismiss it as a piece of junk.

As my friends and I parted ways and I headed back through the shopping centre towards the carpark I noticed the two people in front of me on the escalator: a guy and a girl, both in their early twenties. As the escalator descended, he rested his left elbow on the handrail and gently placed his right hand on the small of his girlfriend's back. For a second I forgot about the movie. I wanted that to be me. I wanted to be leaving the cinema with my girlfriend. It wasn't envy, I just wanted to know what that kind of happiness felt like. Pathetic, I know, but it's what I was feeling. And where I'm at right now, not being able to get a girl to return my phone calls after we go out for coffee, I feel a long way from knowing what that's like. But I didn't dwell, I would have only made myself feel bad. I stepped off the escalator, brushed those thoughts aside and thought some more about the movie as I headed for my car.