03 Jul The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Back in the days when we were dating, one of the activities Jon and I often did with our friends was go to the movies. This was in the days before buying tickets online became common, and before movie theatres ran multiple screens showing the same movie. At the time, you either went earlier in the day to buy tickets or you took your chances at the box office right before the movie. More often than not, the movie we had all decided on was sold out, forcing us to reconvene as a group to decide what other movie we all wanted to see that was playing at a similar time, and that also wasn’t sold out; never an easy task.
Once, on just such an occasion, Jon and I went with our friend Glenn to see an obscure French movie that none of us had ever heard of prior to that moment. It was called something like “Two Lives and Only One death” and it had subtitles and a plot that was nearly impossible to follow, and moved at a snail’s pace. After that experience, Jon swore that if the movie we wanted to see was sold out, we’d just leave and do something else.
We don’t go to many movies these days, but recently we had a kid-free evening and decided to go see “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (which I highly recommend). It seemed like it had been out for a while, so we weren’t too concerned about getting tickets. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we walked up to the ticket counter and saw that the next showing was at 10:20 PM, and the 7:20 movie we had planned on seeing wasn’t even listed! I could barely fathom that it was sold out, so when we got to the teller and he said that the movie was not “in his computer” I stood in stunned silence for a moment. I’ve had a historical conversation about “just missing out” on things, (tickets, events, sales) and here came some more evidence to support it.
The teller essentially shrugged his shoulders and moved on. Finally we stepped to the side, but I just wasn’t willing to let it go. “This can’t be happening, universe!” I thought. I knew that Jon would be reluctant to choose a different movie and I really didn’t want my evening spoiled. We considered the other movie choices but nothing seemed to fit.
My gut still told me that something wasn’t right, so I asked to see the manager. How could it be that the movie was listed online, but not available? I couldn’t leave without asking.
When she came out, she futzed with the computer for a while, and then eventually told us that yes, the movie WAS playing and it just wasn’t in his computer, but in the other teller’s computer. We were able to buy tickets (take THAT, old conversation!) and go on with our evening as planned. It reminded me of the power of asking. If I had given up based on the evidence before me, I would have really missed out! So the next time you’re faced with a similar scenario, give it a try. Ask for what you want, and see what it gets you!
P.S. The best line of the movie (which is in the trailer so I’m not spoiling it) is, “Everything will be alright in the end. So if it is not alright, then it is not the end.”
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