I arrived at the Hatfield House; the closest venue of the various Luna cinemas, at precisely 6 pm on that exquisite Wednesday evening, just before sunset. I was going to watch an old movie, "Dirty Dancing,,,nobody, but nobody puts baby in the corner”; I had previously seen the trailer while perusing the "what's on" movie list some days earlier and anticipation was to the extreme. Two things captivated me; one was that my favorite Hollywood actress, Jenifer Grey, was the main female role, and the second; my love for classic dance movies. And since this movie promised both, I was all in. The pandemic will never ever discourage me from going to the cinema, but of course, I trusted Luna cinema, there was to be adequate health safety measures in place. This is the number one open-air cinema in the United Kingdom. I was undeterred by the cost of the ticket, a whopping £35 (blimey!), but the movie was going to give me the best two hours of my life, so it was worth it and I clicked on the payment option on the Luna cinema website.
I bought two enormous buckets of popcorn (salty of course) with Pepsi and ventured into the theatre to bag my seat in front of the state of the art screen. That was precisely why I had arrived that early; even though I had the seats reserved in my name, I was not going to let anybody, not anybody have it.
At 7:00 pm, I was comfortably seated and was anxiously waiting for 7:30 pm when the movie was scheduled to start. While I waited, I cast my eyes over the classy layout of the cinema; here is the reason I keep coming back to gorge myself in cinematic ecstasy. This cinema had spacious seats and utilised only the best quality sound system; making movies seem like reality. I was here three days ago to see Star Wars; The Rise of Skywalker, the Jojo Rabbit was going to be aired at the same time as Dirty Dancing, but at the King's George Park, so I will be going to see it next time.
My thoughts drifted to how selfish I was. Even though the ticket I purchased was enough for two, I did not invite my best friend; she was not my ideal person to take to the cinema. She always has to comment on each and every scene, disturbing the ambiance of the experience. In my attempt to hush her up, I would end up missing out on the plot development. No, I could not afford to miss out on any of these scenes.
At exactly 7:30 pm, the movie started, bringing me out of my reverie. The film mesmerized me; the cast, the story and the soulful dancing swept me off my feet as I sat. I laughed hard at the hilarious scenes, whimpered along with the teary tragedies. I inwardly screamed at the father and his pathetic attempt to separate such a match made in heaven, but forgave him the minute he gave them his blessing. The movie ended at 9:08 pm, and indeed I must say it was the best 1 hour and 38 minutes of my entire life during the pandemic. Trust me, I am coming back to watch it all over again,, but this time I will have my best friend tag along…if she promises to stay silent…time will tell.
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