Under Dark Waters

Dark Waters is a true life inspired underdog film culminating with a showdown between the good guys and the bad guys reminiscent of Erin Brockovich  and the horror of poison water in Flint Michigan. The film is directed by Todd Haynes and stars Mark Ruffallo at his most socially conscious.

Perhaps it would rate higher on my list if not for the lack of something which can not be blamed on the movie but for which the quality of the movie suffers; poor theater projection resulting in loss of precise focus.

A film that is carelessly projected or presented out of focus is INTOLERABLE to me.

Dark Waters was such a film The first sequence of Dark Waters was a flashback  in the dark. Darkness flashbacks offer double jeopardy to focus so I gave the opening sequence the benefit of the doubt.

The next twenty minutes of the film were neither in flashback nor darkness and every second of every minute was poorly focused if not completely out of focus. When I notice this problem, I usually tell my wife "this piece of shit's out of focus" to which she usually replies "you're out of your mind". I back off and continue to watch the film with diminished attention until it finally becomes INTOLERABLE. At that point I whisper to myself  "intolerable" and once again express my displeasure to Lynn who typically replies "no it's not...calm down and watch the goddamned movie". 

Today was different. After I whispered "intolerable" Lynn remained silent.  Encouraged by her silence, I told Lynn that I was going to complain. She didn't stop me so off I went.

The concession stand was fairly empty when I arrived. I asked the concessionaire if I could speak to the manager. The manager was "unavailable at the moment" but the concessionaire wanted to know the problem and how she could help. She seemed like a nice person.

" Dark Waters in theater 5 is projecting poorly. Either the projector needs to be adjusted or the print quality of the film itself is sub-standard. Either way, it's diminishing my interest in the film which is a disservice not only to me but to the film itself."

She assured me that she would check.

I assured her that I would check back.

I pouted my way through the rest of the film as if I were watching it unde dark water.  On the way out of the theater, Lynn wanted to talk about the content of the film, I couldn't get past the lack of focus.

Lynn stopped in the rest room and I made my way back to the concession stand. 

The concessionairre whose name tag said "Lucy" saw me coming and did not back off one bit.

I'm a guy who always calls a person by their name tag which is pretty much the reason why we wear them in the first place.

"Hi Lucy. I'm sorry to say that the film stayed out of focus and I remained distracted and disappointed for the duration."

Lucy was understanding...."We've just had new projectors installed and they are supposed to automatically put the frames in focus. I'm sorry about your dissatisfaction. I talked to the manager and she'll be out in a minute. Would you like a refund or comps for a future show? Oh, here she comes now."

I made my way over to the manager's area. The manager was wearing the name tag "Gretchen". 

"Hi Gretchen, I understand that Lucy passed on my concern about the focus in Theater 5".

"Yes , she did. I'm sorry for your inconvenience. Can I comp you for a future show?'

"That would be appropriate and acceptable to me. I need two comps because my wife was with me. Here she comes now.'

Lynn was approaching the manager's area with her look that says "you're not making an asshole out of yourself over nothing again, are you."

Gretchen handed me the two tickets with a smile and thanked me for coming forward.

"Thank you, Gretchen and my compliments to you and Lucy. You both handled this awkward situation with grace. Here's the bigger picture. That movie is out of focus and everybody watching it is seeing an inaccurate presentation of the film. People will passively sit and watch an out of focus film rather than risk the inconvenience/hassle of saying something about it. The mere fact that the movie in theater 5 is still out of focus after playing here for a week indicates that a) either nobody else has come forward to mention it to you or b) that some one has mentioned it to you and you are aware of the problem and yet continue to show it with the understanding that if somebody does notice it, you can comp and thank them."

Gretchen knew exactly what I was talking about. Her rueful smile assurred me of that.

Lynn, who had kept her distance during the discussion, said "I hope you didn't make an ass of yourself."

In response I handed her the two complimentary tickets and said,  "Merry Christmas"

Lynn said "good job".

I wish I had something more positive to say about Dark Waters, yet there is nothing more important than what I'm about to say.

We customers have the right to see a movie in its full focus. If you question the focus of a film, get up from the film and make your concern known. Don't worry if nobody else gets up. Moviegoers are only concerned when the sound goes off and even than are reluctant to speak up which means the maladjustment will continue until someone reports the problem, which in the case of Dark Waters, I was the patron who did something about it.