Photo from: IGN
Aaahh, date night. Work schedules and a need to get things done around the house when we're both home at the same time has precluded date nights for a while, so last night we ventured out for some Italian food (Rob's pork marsala had us nearly licking the plate) and Alice in Wonderland. I have to tell you, I love Tim Burton, I've wanted to make it into the city to see his exhibit at MoMA for a while, but it just hasn't happened. Alice is a fantastic combination of all things Burton, I loved it. Creepy, bizarre, with a dose of the enduring spirit of the individualist, the movie was beautiful, and very funny. Here's what we loved...
Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen... hysterical
An entirely unexpected performance from Anne Hathaway as The White Queen... very, very funny...
And Johnny Depp's performance as The Mad Hatter was incredibly sweet and insane all at the same time. Perfectly Tim Burton. Plus he had massive red eye brows... they moved. I laughed.
So all in all, really fantastic movie. Should have been a nice night out, right? Wrong. I have this ability to find the absolute worst seat in an entire movie theater. If there is someone with a strange laugh, I'll sit in front of them. The person with the kids that kick the seat, that seat is usually mine. The guy who wants to re-experience every line by repeating it to those around them, yeah, I've sat in front of that guy... on multiple occasions. I was even in a movie theater in Queens where someone started to graffiti with spray paint the walls... that will pull you out of a movie, let me tell you. Anyway,the woman sitting in back of us last night nearly drove me to violence. She was a combination of all of it... the mother of all bad movie-goers. I'm sure other people were laughing at her... but they weren't down wind of her noises... we seriously had the worst seats in the theater. No surprise.
I usually do a little reconnaissance before choosing a seat (experience tells me to). I gage the conversation volumes happening during the ads and before the previews. I look at the positions of people's feet - on the back of the seat in front of them, bad, bad. I attempt to avoid the pitfalls of strong perfume or cologne (also known in my line of work as a "teen shower"). I was uncomfortable with our seat from the beginning, but couldn't sit too far away (and Rob likes the end) so we were a little cornered. There was another row in front of us that I agonized about switching to while Rob was in the bathroom. We should have switched.
The woman behind us began the evening's festivities by declaring that the child Alice was both "beautiful" and "British" well spotted. At the end of nearly every line of dialogue, this devil woman laughed a loud, unexpected, and inappropriate (no one else was laughing) "Hamph" sometimes "Ha-Hamph." The first few times it startled me, then I spent the rest of the movie anticipating it, even on the rare occasion it didn't happen... which is almost worse. I turned around, she didn't notice. I came close to a low and threatening shhhh, but was just trying in vain to listen to the movie. It was awful, but not out of the ordinary. I would have moved, but coordinating a move was outside of the realms of possibilities with 3D glasses on and I was relatively sure Rob could not have made it. Stuffing ourselves at dinner slowed us I tell you. We were stuck.
So I have to recommend Alice, whole heartedly. It was a great movie, and I'm so glad we were able to see it in 3D. Be careful when picking your seat. Vacation is fast approaching here, and I think I'm going to try to make it into the city for a little Tim Burton love. And we can't wait until Alice is available on DVD... we like the theater experience at Gehring Road a little better. Happy Weekend!
