Here in the Kansas City metro area, BBM is showing, for now, only on four art house screens. I happened to see the film in Overland Park, Kansas, a very conservative part of the metro. I was there with my partner, and we were both surprised that there were few other gay couples evident in the sellout crowd. The audience was, by far, female. Some lesbians, to be sure, but I would say mostly straight women. The two women who sat next to me were obviously a mother and her middle-aged daughter...could be they couldn't get their husbands to go with them.
I was furious, by the way, that at this particular art house the 7:00 pm showing was held in its smallest theater, an auditorium obviously not designed for film screenings and seating only about 100. The screen in this theater is almost ridiculously small. I have seen many small, independent films on this screen and that has been fine. But is it just plan wrong to show a picture that has a advance reputation for its cinematography in such a room, on such a tiny screen. Oh, I was fuming!
Need I say, though, that soon after the film began I was so absorbed that it didn't matter that I was seeing it on a small screen?
The audience was mostly quiet throughout the picture. The humorous bits were warmly appreciated and seemed to offer some "relief" from the more serious scenes. I didn't notice any untimely sniggers or other homophobic reactions. I was very surprised, though, that there were few displays of emotion toward the end. I heard a few sniffles around me, that was all...meanwhile I was crying like a baby for what seemed like, oh, at least the last 20 minutes of the picture. My partner tends not to show emotion in movie theaters, and was quite stoic about the whole thing, though he did say he nearly broke down and wept when Willie started singing "He Was a Friend of Mine."
We sat all the way through the closing credits, as we usually do. One of the two women sitting next to my partner (there were no men sitting anywhere near us) said she couldn't wait to go out and get the soundtrack. They stayed all the way through the credits also, though most people didn't. I was very conscious of those few who were still seated as we left the auditorium. It was a lot like leaving a memorial service, I didn't want to disturb anyone who was still in a meditative or contemplative state.
Out in the lobby, a few straight, middle-aged couples who had come to the screening together were engaged in conversation. Apparently--remember, this is Kansas--they had not been previously aware that homosexuals sometimes enter into heterosexual marriages. I heard one of the women say, with sympathy, "He got married because that was the only kind of love he could have." (I think she was speaking of Ennis, though I'm not sure.)
I'm somewhat embarrassed by the length of this post, and I'm supposed to be working (!), so I'll stop here. Thank you all.