Marshall and the Movies

I’ll go there again – another moviegoing pet peeve that I think I may have just realized bothers me.

PDA.  No, not the ancient name for Palm Pilots and BlackBerrys, I’m talking about Public Display of Affection.  Or, as I’ve heard it alternatively dubbed, public demanding of attention.

That second definition is exactly what it means to me when done in a movie theater.  When seeing “Harry Potter” for the second time, I had to squeeze in next to a couple very much in love in order to get four seats together for my entire family.  At the beginning of the trailers, his hand was on her kneecap.  Throughout the movie, I would hear a little giggle, and the hand would move up just a little bit.  By about halfway through the movie, that same hand was about halfway up her knee.

At that point, I was feeling fairly awkward that they were having a nice little moment and here I was trying to watch a movie.  I’d tell them to get a room, but why do that when we both paid $10.25 to sit in the same room?  I don’t think a movie, particularly “Harry Potter” in its first week, should send a message that it’s an appropriate place for some intimacy.  It should send the message saying, “I love you but I want to see what happens to Harry Potter for a few hours, so I’m going to disengage for 2 1/2 hours aside from a few trite comments every once in a while.”

All things considered, compared to crying babies and inappropriate laughter, PDA in a movie theater isn’t that bad.  But it’s still a nuisance.  Can’t everyone just be on their best behavior for two hours so I can enjoy a movie?

P.S. – I’ve had the idea after reading an excessive amount of David Sedaris that maybe I should turn all these nasty moviegoing experiences into some great book of humorous anecdotal essays.  Thoughts?