Dorian Gray

[opas]

Yes my sister did- you may have been standing right next to her!

[Beate]

I probably have to do this in instalments as I am still so worked up. To say I am utterly furious would be a total understatement! What a complete and utter shambles. It totally ruined the gathering we had planned for phunkygal, everyone went home with their cards for her still in their bags!

I had a Momentum printout and two names on the guest list from the indiesmoviesonline comp. Those two people were my OH and 5rannoch who I knew would be there before and could keep us seats. Actually, Maria Lionza was in first and reserved almost a whole row for us! She got there at 5.20pm, my OH got there about 5.30pm and got in fine. 5rannoch told me later she got there about 5.50pm when they had apparently already stopped people going in, but she made a fuss saying her name is on the guest list and her friend is in there keeping her a seat so they let her in. My friend and I did not arrive before 6pm which is usually plenty of time and which is the time we were advised to be there on both the Momentum printout and the PR company who organised the competition. Unfortunately, the Orange comp winners were told 5.30pm so probably a lot more of them got in - and the press of course. Now, I don't mind the press as such but why send out hundreds of tickets to the ordinary folks only to leave them standing in the rain for 45 minutes and then turn them away? How can you overbook that massively?

[Beate]

Well, my friend and I queued up (I had got a message on my phone from valda in the meantime but couldn't ring her back as there was no number displayed), then I rang cheekyweelassie who had texted me and who was actually quite at the start of the queue. We said hi and phunkygal who was standing in the middle somewhere, said hi too, then I tried to get my friend to join cheekyweelassie and me but she refused to queue jump. I tried to argue with her that we weren't taking anyone's tickets away as they were being kept for us but she was having none of it so I drudged back out into the rain. Thanks very much for that. At 6.15pm I asked an usher what on earth was going on and he said something about still sorting something out for the people with real tickets (what real tickets?) but it would be moving soon. Yeah right. At 6.30pm someone came out and announced to the queue "very sorry but the screening is full". I said "it is not full, there are seats being kept for us!" So she told me to go inside to speak to someone. I grabbed my friend and shouted to phunkygal + OH to follow me, spoke to two people and the second one was having none of it. No, he absolutely could not let us in. It is first come first served. No you can't reserve seats." I said "But they are! There are empty seats in there waiting for us!" At this moment phunkygal + OH gave up and left for a birthday dinner, Maria Lionza was suddenly there arguing with them as well, then went inside telling us not to move. I was not about to give up, I had lost cheekyweelassie, seen tufty in the queue being turned away, but I was now phoning the OH in the cinema who picked up but never talked to me instead continued to have a barnie with someone who apparently wanted our seats. All of a sudden ML was back waving to me to follow her, I screamed for my friend but she was gone so all I could do was make a run for it. I think I was the last person being let in, and we could have got the others in if they had not given up already! The film started only 5 minutes late but we had some trailers as well. I have no idea what they were though as I was too busy being angry. No hang on, one was for The September Issue.

I am so so sorry for everyone I missed or did not get in despite my best efforts, I am going to write both to the PR company and Momentum. There are two screens at the Odeon West End and they put us in the smaller one.

[MariaLionza]

I am angry because I made a point to phunkygal not to move away and when I returned with a person that was helping she had gone I couldn't believe it. It took me about 15 min to start concentrating in the film, oh god! It was an awful situation! Also I had invited dovetail, my friend and I could not even see her because of the amount of people gathered in the front. I don't even know if she made it, what a nightmare!
The film was very good! I was dreading they have dared to touch such an icon of literature but it passed with flying colors, Ben Barnes was really good and I'm not into pretty boys at all! The ending was a perfect account of what horror is.

[Beate]

After all this fuss, thankfully the film was really good. Ben Barnes and Colin Firth were great as Dorian Gray and Harry, it was all rather sleak and dark, with sex and violence etc, if not for the costumes and vintage cars it felt like a modern film! I hadn't read the book for a long time but it's a simple story - a young man finds that a painting of him ages instead of him and shows the signs of his fun-loving lifestyle, a lifestyle that seems to care for nothing other than the pursuit of pleasure, treating people cruelly in the process, with horrible consequences.

8/10

[valda]

Oh I thought Phunkygal had got in, that's such a shame and on her birthday too! I do hope they had a lovely dinner. I didn't realise that the people waiting in the front of the queue didn't get in either. I thought it was odd they came up to where we were and worked backwards. I just presumed that as the man had counted numbers, they knew where to start turning people away from. total fiasco. As Beate said, why keep people waiting in the rain when they knew there was no chance of them getting in?

I could have been there for 5.30 but decided to go for some food first

We were told we would be contacted tomorrow with comps. The girl took my email so will wait and see what occurs

[MariaLionza]

Oh I thought Phunkygal had got in, that's such a shame and on her birthday too! I do hope they had a lovely dinner. I didn't realise that the people waiting in the front of the queue didn't get in either. I thought it was odd they came up to where we were and worked backwards. I just presumed that as the man had counted numbers, they knew where to start turning people away from. total fiasco. As Beate said, why keep people waiting in the rain when they knew there was no chance of them getting in?

I could have been there for 5.30 but decided to go for some food first

We were told we would be contacted tomorrow with comps. The girl took my email so will wait and see what occurs

Yeah! on her birthday , I thought it dreaful! I, too hope at leat she had a lovely dinner.

[moondance]

We were told that the people with 'proper tickets' were part of the production team - which would explain why they had preference to the rest of us................ as we were being told that there were no more places some guys in front had those tickets and she said 'oh you can just go in' so there must have been some places in there...................

Lets see if anyone gets the promised email.....................

[Beate]

There was one lovely thing I remember, a girl came out to the queue and asked if anyone was here to see the film on their own, a woman came forward and she gave her a spare ticket, must have been a proper one, I only realised later that she wouldn't have got in otherwise at all!

[AYBG]

To see a trailer or rate this film, please click here »



Reports are coming in that disastrous organisation resulted in a vast number of people being turned away from this screening, even after waiting as instructed by the cinema staff. One such person was a certain Birthday Gal whose evening wasn't ruined I hope. Tut-tut Momentum. One of the "lucky" ones to get in eventually was MariaLionza, who was able to enjoy the film in the end:

The film was very good! I was dreading they have dared to touch such an icon of literature but it passed with flying colors, Ben Barnes was really good and I'm not into pretty boys at all! The ending was a perfect account of what horror is.

Dorian Gray opens on September 6th. For accounts of the farce at Odeon West End and more views on the film, check out the forum thread.