Unexpected Reactions to Movies You've Recommended or Shown Others
Sometimes we get excited to share favorites with our friends and loved ones only to realize that it doesn't line up with their tastes.
Once I tried to show a friend The Iron Giant, but he couldn't make it beyond 20 minutes into the picture and wanted to turn it off, saying it was too dumb for him. We then proceeded to watch Beavis and Butthead.
I went with my sister to an early screening of The Fountain, hyped for a an ambitious and profound experience. She laughed each time Hugh Jackman displayed intense emotion. Conversely, I saw it later that year with my girlfriend at the time, and she seemed really somber afterward, telling me: "You didn't say it was going to be a sad movie."
What takes the cake, though, is La La Land. I watched it early last year with someone I was dating at the time who possesses a narrow taste for anything outside of a Hallmark movie. She showed visible disinterest during the film, fidgeting in her seat and frequently getting up. By the time the credits rolled, she sighed a sigh of unimpressed boredom before looking over at me, no doubt noticing my eyes welling up. I was feeling particularly vulnerable at that moment, at which point she glared at me and yelled: "THAT REMINDED YOU OF YOUR EX, DIDN'T IT?!" Then she proceeded to launch into more than two hours of yelling alternated with begging for sincere reassurances, which are kind of hard to do when you've just been verbally lambasted. It was at that point when I realized I had made a huge mistake.
Have any of you ever experienced a surprising response during or after showing someone a movie before?