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 After our success in attending live theater in February, we decided to give a movie a try.  An actual movie in an actual theater.  My husband wanted to see "Oppenheimer" so he asked if I wanted to go.  Sure, I said, but let's go to that theater in Waconia that has captioning.  I know I'll miss things if there's no captioning.

So we went online and bought tickets (it's also one of those theaters with recliners rather than tiny little theater seats, which was quite nice, though not nearly as comfortable as the recliner in our sectional at home).  

Then we drove an hour.  See, we live outside a small town.  There are two theaters in town, but neither has captions (according to the websites, anyway, and I think if they had it they'd say so).  So we drove to a town that's an hour from home, but is increasingly becoming less of a town and more of an outer-ring suburb of Minneapolis.

When we arrived I asked about the captioning, and it appears to be a little device that sits in the cupholder on your seat and provides captioning separately - that is, it's not on the screen like it is on our TV at home.  So I got the device and we got it set up, and then the movie started, and.....nothing.

No captions.  When I looked at their website, the listing for Oppenheimer specifically said it had captions, but apparently according to the kids who were the only employees onsite, that just means the ability is there, some movies are not set up to work with the device.  We pointed out, not angrily, and acknowledging that we know that the kids who sell tickets and make popcorn aren't making advertising decisions, but told them that it was deceptive to put it on the website when availability was sporadic, and that we'd driven an hour based on their claim on their website.  Which, of course, won't happen again.

This is why I always wait for the DVD to come out and watch at home.  I fully expected to miss half the dialogue without captions, and I did.  In this instance even my husband wasn't able to hear everything - there's a lot of background stuff and people with accents (which was dizzying, actually - we have Cillian Murphy, who's Irish, playing Oppenheimer, who's American, and Kenneth Branagh - and I'd always thought he was English, but checking just now I see he was born in Belfast, and he was playing Niels Bohr, a Dane - basically half the cast was using an accent that they had to learn).  

Anyway, excellent film, and I will probably watch again when the DVD comes out.  But I mean, come on, theaters.  First, how about having adaptive technology that actually works?  And if you can't manage that, don't claim that you did.