Watching The Happening in Gold Class

A FEW weeks ago I watched M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie The Happening with my friend Rasha in Gold Class at Cinestar cinema in Marina Mall.

Gold Class for those of you who don’t know, is the luxury, boutique version of watching a film at the cinema. We got to watch the film in a separate screening room that seated only around 30 viewers. The seats were huge black leather reclining ones, with a table in between for snacks and drinks, which are served for you at your table. All of this for Dh100 instead of Dh30 for the regular cinema.

Was it worth it? Yes, just for the experience of watching a film in near total comfort, my legs stretched out and raised on the comfy recliner. The popcorn was served in a big metal bowl, and I got to sip my Diet Coke from a glass mug. It was a bit chilly, but I noticed as we were leaving that the management had handed out blankets to cold patrons, and made a note of asking for some the next time we tried Gold Class.

As for the movie, let’s just say that we laughed our way through it. The premise of the story was interesting (a neurotoxin released by plants causes people to commit suicide) but rapidly degenerated into scenes of two main protagonists, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, running through the Pennsylvania countryside shrieking that death was catching up with them. Deschanel was especially irritating as she couldn’t seem to get rid of her wide-eyed terrified look the entire film, and Wahlberg’s voice also became annoying as he seemed to be trying too hard to be upbeat in the sea if people popping themselves off.

Rasha objected to the scenes where a man entered a lions’ cage at a zoo and allowed them to rip his arms off, and another scene where a man lays down on the grass and allows a huge lawnmower to mow over his body and shred it to bits. I thought the scenes were shocking, but that they fit in with the story-line and made sense in that context.