Husband Dear has been out of town for the past week–and will be gone again next week–so last night I thought it would be a nice treat for the four of us to have dinner out and then catch a movie. We had all seen the previews of the sprawing new movie Australia and agreed it would be one to see on the Big Screen rather than on our computers via Netflix. I’ve loved the over-the-top, highly theatrical directorial work of Baz Luhrmann since his Strictly Ballroom days, enjoyed Moulin Rouge and as for Nicole Kidman’s outfits…well, C. just loves that 1940s style.
In the theater I was sandwiched between C. and M. Australia is a schmaltzy, cheesy, entirely predictable, epic-wannabee of a movie set in northern Australia before World War II. At close to three hours you get your entertainment dollar’s worth. There are dust storms, murder, a drowning, cattle stampedes, a swanky benefit dance, Japanese bombings, and mean men looking to snatch the cutest child on the planet.
C. spent half the movie with her head between her knees or buried in my shoulder. When the cattle stampede got under way (CGI all the way) she said she had to leave and asked for my iPhone. She needed to find out how the movie ended. I whispered assurances that *of course* it would have a happy ending, but she insisted she had to know what was going to happen. So I gave her the phone, she retreated to the lobby where I guess she got all the major plot points via the Internet, and then returned….to spend most of the rest of the movie with her head between her knees. Her younger sister? Completely unfazed.
“That’s why I only like comedies,” C. said on the way out. That and political films, like All The President’s Men. She thinks the preview for Frost / Nixon looks good.
Thanks for this vision of what can happen with an overexcitable child (young teen) in a movie theater.
That’s why I have to tell babysitters not to show movies, to only turn on certain channels. I have been told that the last week or two of kindergarten includes movies in the classroom. We may have to prescreen them or pull her out of school early or come up with a different activity.
I am (and have been) the same way with visual media. Reading usually (but not always) is sufficiently distant that I don’t have a problem.
Taking their chances on overexcitability.
My daughter’s kindergarten class was shown two movies this week, “The Grinch who Stole Christmas” and “The Polar Express”. She thought that the adults on the train in “The Polar Express” were ghosts. Fortunately, for her teacher (and me and her), she wasn’t afraid of those ghosts. In this case, one of the kindergarten teachers was sitting with the children when they watched the movies. I also know that they combined the kindergarten classes for the movies.
It was supposed to be their indoor recess (normally teacher preparation time). I don’t know if indoor vs. outdoor recess is decided centrally or by the school, but the school is prone to declaring indoor recess even in cases where my daughter’s preschool would have gone out.