The theatre is divided into two sides, and it was obvious which side was showing The Movie, for the line was meandering through most of the vestibule. The local crew has theorized for ages about what it would take to get all of the 20something Huntsvegas crowd into the same place. Bars, hockey, and clubbing never seem to make it happen. But last night, it seems, the entire even-slightly-geekish bit of the population was at the movie theatre.

Sean started waving to co-workers; Jess to fellow students; Kat to old friends—even, yes, my spouse spotted someone he knew. (I stood around, nodded and shook hands where appropriate, and made myself as ornamental as possible without attempting to turn myself into living sculpture.)

Then we looked at the tickets, and realized we had a problem. Oh, lovely, Fandango—thanks. Jeff and I were slated for the 8:30 showing instead of the planned 8:00. The end result: Sean went up to perfect strangers and asked them, at about 7:40, if they'd be interested in exchanging a pair of 8:30 tickets for 8:00 tickets so that our entire group could attend together.

There were enough charitable folk in the lobby to exchange all the tickets, so we were all able to obtain tickets for the 8:30 showing. End result: we were there not 30 minutes prior to screen time, but an hour. Sure, we looked pretty silly standing in line for an hour, but we got those thoroughly sweet seats in the center of the theatre. I even got to sit in front of the handicapped section, which has bars, and that allowed me prop my feet up for most of the movie. Bonus.

Before the movie started, a man representing the official fan club was asking trivia questions and handing out prizes. It was, quite possibly, the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in a movie theatre—followed closely behind by the fact that the people in the audience knew the answers to the questions. Disturbing stuff, that.

The movie, you ask? Breathtaking. Not perfect; there are things one can quibble over, but they are very few, and my (high) expectations were met. As I said to Andrew on the phone this morning: "Go. Now. It lives up to the hype."

A difficult question: costuming. Whose was better—Moulin Rouge's or LoTR? Something worth pondering.