"So What Did You Think?--The Answer"

So in the end, how does all this exposition relate to my original excuse for writing this essay? It seems to suggest that the task of making a mutual enjoyment out of communal movie-going is hopeless. Maybe so, but to conclude I will suggest that essentially there are three ways to go. You’ve just come out of let’s say The Interpreter; what do you do?

1) You may take a leaf from the professionals and when your friend says, “So, what did you think?,” you reply without any intimation of irony (best to have rehearsed this beforehand), “Well, it wasn’t the best Sydney Pollack, Three Days of the Condor and The Firm were better thrillers, but if you like suspense he really knows how to do it. Doesn’t he?” (That last is the sting in the scorpion’s tail.) Or, 2) you seize pleasure by the...whatever, and say: “The truth? I could cheerfully pay good money to watch Nicole Kidman shredding a phone book for two hours.” Or 3), let’s face it, there’s only one way to go, really. You set just one foot out that theater’s door
and you turn to your friends and you say, “So, what did you think?”