Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

I loved the damn movie the same way I loved the damn books, with one eye open to the fact that they are highly flawed. Love it anyway. - imaginarycircus

So I did that crazy thing. And it was worth it. It was sort of astonishing to watch those characters grow up on screen, to realize how cruel so many choices were. That moment where Harry talks to Sirius about how he's angry all the time and afraid he's becoming more like Voldemort really killed me this time around the bend. Because he's seen Cedric die and no one is telling him anything and everything is wrong and out of control.

So then we came to the end. The kids aren't really kids anymore, are they?

There were so many little things. The looks people gave each other. The small gestures. Minerva leaping to Harry's side in the Great Hall. The Malfoys - Narcissa and Draco walking away, Lucius running after them. Neville, being awesome. The sky on fire. Everything about that opening moment where Severus Snape is framed in the window looking out of Hogwarts.

The final battle at Hogwarts was madness. Someone next to me let out this choked gasp and I realized people were crying all around me. During the scenes of Snape's memories, I felt the quiet ebb and flow of choked breath all over the theater. People were sobbing as soundlessly as they could. It was intense.

We live so much in our heads sometimes and it feels startling to see these things taken out and put into the world. It feels strange and wonderful to know other people saw them too. There are things missing from the movies, constraints of film and time and money. But it makes for such a special experience even so.

There was one kid in my theater, a girl maybe 12 years old who was accompanied by an adult. I wonder what it must be like to be a kid with an adult in your life that they would take you to a movie marathon that starts at 4:30am and ends after 2am the next day. They were both wearing Gryffindor colors.

I have to say, I enjoyed the epilogue more as an on screen device and closure than I did with the books. It at least made me laugh a little.

So I did that thing and I'm really glad I did that thing. Because it hurt at times, but it was worth every single moment. I ate a lot of scones, drank butter beers, had pudding and treacle tart and seared trout salad and wished the person next to me wasn't taking up all the arm rest or intruding on my seat. But it was worth it to live all of that all over again at once.

(Thank you Alamo Drafthouse for making that possible. You are the best.)