my trip to the movies.

Sunday night was set aside for my sister and I to spend some quality time together, something we haven't done in a while. The plan - attend a free showing of "The Brave One", a "Death Wish"-style thriller starring the always great Jodie Foster as a woman bent on revenge, which had a short-lived stay in theatres but with Terrence Howard co-starring and Neil Jordan directing, promised an interesting night at the movies. My sister's late arrival meant dinner plans went out the window, and as we walked the 5 minutes towards the theatre I contemplated a nutritional meal of popcorn and sugar water.

The cinema experience is something I treasure - the familiar hush of the theatre as the lights dim, the silent anticipation as the screen expands. Knowing that for at least 90 minutes you can drop everything and be entertained, transported to another place. This experience was to be a little different.

For one thing, each trip to the silver screen is made unique by the people you sit in silence with, and the free movie idea while grand brought to our particular theatre more than one inebriated individual. I require my movie theatres to be as silent as a morgue - when friends try to speak with me I will answer with a curt nod while trying to maintain my focus. So I knew immediately that the two, haggard in appearance and mind, would taint my viewing. They contrived to yell often at the screen and frequently disrupt an otherwise tense movie-going experience. To cut an already long story short, the two were robbed of their chance to ruin the entire movie when four security personnel forcibly escorted them from the theatre, stopping the movie in the process.

Needless to say, my sister and I exchanged incredulous looks more than once.

Before it resumed, and to loud grateful applause from the audience, the manager announced that everyone would get a free movie pass upon exiting the theatre. One opportunistic man yelled for free popcorn as well, and the entire audience was duly rewarded. The experience made me reflect on a few situations with homeless people/vagabonds that have come up in the past few months since moving downtown. One was swinging on the subway bars this afternoon like a drunken monkey, and nearly sprayed me with some milky concoction he was drinking - possibly milk and vodka. He quickly grabbed his foul smelling bags and yelled something barely recognizable before dashing off the train. Certainly not something you saw too often in the Burbs.

Ultimately it was a night to remember - the movie itself was intense and entertaining (regardless of what the critics thought) and Jodie Foster is awesome. And a great way to bond with my sis.