It’s the new year and this weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to do something we hadn’t done in ages. Decades actually. We decided to go out to a movie together at a real movie theater.
That may sound a bit odd considering we’ve been married for 37 years and have been together for over 40 years. But when we thought about it this past weekend, we realized the two of us hadn’t been out to a movie by ourselves since before our kids were born. We hadn’t been on a “date” involving just us and a theater with concession stand goodies in at least 30 years.
A good chunk of those 30 years we did go to movies, just not alone. Or more specifically my wife and one or both of our kids went to the movies. Occasionally on a weekend I would have the honor of accompanying our kids to a movie – usually something with the Transformers. Or Jimmy Neutron. Or the Rugrats.
Then over time, as TV screens got larger and less expensive, and the time between when a movie was in the theaters and when it was available for home viewing diminished, we found ourselves, like many people, defaulting to the home theater. You know the one.
Inexpensive snacks and drinks specifically tailored to our liking. A movie that paused whenever a break was needed for a food refill or a trip to a familiar bathroom. Closed captions that made sure you captured every bit of dialogue – especially the witty dialogue so littered throughout the noisy action scenes of every Marvel movie.
And, when you’re sitting a mere 10 feet from a large TV screen, the amount of space the screen takes up in your field-of-vision is not much different from that of a huge theater screen 30 feet away. Not to mention a semi-decent set of home speakers and an amplifier can do a reasonable job of simulating the listening experience in a movie theater.
So, it simply becomes easy to default to the home theater for fun family viewing. Which turns into defaulting to the home theater for couples-only viewing as well. And one year turns into two, which turns into 10, and as the saying goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Next thing you know you and your wife are trying to remember the last time you saw a movie in a theater as a couple. And you just can’t recall.
The result being that my wife and I, on the spur of the moment this weekend, decided to go. We scanned the Cineplex offerings and after a little back-and-forth discussion chose the movie, “The Boys in the Boat.”
The first fly in the ointment cropped up when we realized we were going to be late for the showing. Undeterred, my wife recalled that our daughter had recently noted the amount of previews being shown at movies these days was getting longer and longer. When we arrived at the theater 15 minutes after the scheduled showing time, the women who sold us our tickets confirmed this – there were almost 30 minutes of previews.
Feeling confident in our choice we headed down the hall toward the correct theater number, even taking a last-minute bathroom break – the movie’s run time is over two hours! – and still made it into our seats for the last preview.
And what seats. This is another indication of how long it has been since I personally have been in a movie theater (see the aforementioned Transformers, Rugrats and Jimmy Neutron references). When we bought our tickets we had to choose individual seats – a row and seats – just like a football game. Luckily there were two seats together in row seven. I thought this was a nice innovation for the industry, rather than the classic open, general admission seating. Especially since we were arriving so late. We knew we had seats, where they were and that wouldn’t be scanning a dark theater trying to identify open spaces.
As I said, and what seats! Large, comfortable leather lounge chairs – OK, maybe they were faux leather – each with a tray table and drink-holder. And they reclined! Using a button on the inside of the right arm I could control a footrest AND the seatback. I had heard over recent years from family and friends about this transformation in movie watching, but since I obviously don’t go, I treated it as need-to-know information, and I didn’t need to know. But now I know!
After playing with our reclining controls and moving our tray tables, my wife and I settled into our big comfy, cozy chairs just as the movie began.
At this point I should mention that my favorite movie of all time is “Casablanca.” The good guys win, the bad guys lose. Any death is not graphic – Ugarte dies off-screen, and Major Strasser’s death is essentially self-defense on Rick’s part. Relationships are not consummated on screen. We know what happens between Ilsa and Rick, we don’t have to see it. Every line of dialogue adds to the story. There’s witty humor. And there are no cringe-worthy moments. No interaction between characters that makes me just want to walk away because it’s so stilted or formulaic or downright embarrassing.
Having said that, and understanding that it sounds a bit puritanical, know that I certainly have enjoyed the action, suspense, fantasy and pure fun in a number of movies – watched at home – down through the years. Especially, did I mention, the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies culminating with “Avengers: Endgame.” Or the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. Even the “Harry Potter” series. I’m just not a big consumer of rom-com or dramatic movie-going fare.
Anyway, to get back to the story… We went into the theater to watch “The Boys in the Boat” with no preconceptions – we certainly hadn’t seen any previews – and after discovering how comfortable the chairs were I was hoping for a good film. But I would have been happy to take a nice nap if the film was disappointing. Except it was very much the former.
Granted, the film is based on historical events. Meaning, if we’ve studied our history a bit we know the outcome before the movie begins. And the bigger the significance of the historical event, the more likely we are to know the outcome (Yes, shock of shocks, in “Oppenheimer” the bomb works). In the case of “The Boys in the Boat,” though, I was not familiar at all with the story. My primary history-lesson recollections regarding the 1936 Olympics centered on Jesse Owens and his four gold medals. The exploits of the men’s rowing team from the University of Washington were not a part of those lessons.
Which made the film interesting as well as exciting.
Early scenes in the movie show that 1930s Seattle was a much different place than the tech-rich and expensive city we know today. The University of Washington is also portrayed as a more working-class institution than might be the current perception. Both of which shed some light on my wife’s family history – her maternal grandfather was born in Seattle and graduated from the University of Washington in 1929 – just seven years before the events in the film. In addition, we have a UW connection as a nephew of ours is an alum and played baseball for the Huskies.
Given all that, and without having to issue any spoiler alerts, “The Boys in the Boat” is a great movie. I can’t tell you who wins, but no one dies. Relationships are not consummated on screen, even though it’s clear some are consummated. There’s no extraneous dialogue. There are a few witty, humorous scenes. Above all, there are no cringe-worthy moments. And with the pre-World War II setting, it has a “Casablanca”-like feel as far as who the really bad guys are. I would highly recommend it.
And now that my wife and I have broken this decades-long string of missed movie-date nights, coupled with the success of our little foray into full-scale cinema watching, perhaps we’ll use this new year as an opportunity to see if there is anything else out there as enjoyable as “The Boys in the Boat.” Wish us luck!
