I went to see “Bridget Jones’s Baby” the other day (don’t ask) and it was a very frustrating experience.  Although Renée Zellweger was as adorable as ever,  I could only make out less than half of what she said.

Her faux English accent didn’t help, and a soundtrack layered with music buried a lot of the dialogue.

But the rest of the audience seemed to be laughing on cue so the issue was obviously my hearing loss.  Even with the best hearing aids many of us struggle to hear dialogue in movie theatres.  There’s no point in complaining, “the actors are mumbling” or “the soundtrack mix is so muddy”. Face it.  It’s your hearing.

But then I discovered what I can only call the cinema world’s best kept secret.  It’s called the CaptiView system and it offers discreet, easy to read captions (or subtitles if you prefer) right there in any seat in the house.

So I decided to check it out and a few nights later went to see “Jack Reacher – Never Go Back”, and Tom Cruise was as adorable as ever.   His character was a man of few words, and with the captions in front of me, I didn’t miss a single one of them.

The CaptiView system is easy to use. The base fits into the seat’s cup holder and with the flexible arm you can position the screen wherever you like.

The screen has louvers so you can see it but people around you won’t be distracted.  The system has been around since 2010 but I only just learned about it.

To their credit Cineplex has CaptiView in most of its Canadian theatres.

To find out if the movie you want to see offers CaptiView, check out the Cineplex website and look for the “CC” (closed captioned) symbol.

Not sure about other theatre chains in Canada, the U.S or around the world.

One minor issue.  Near the end of the movie, Tom inexplicably ad libbed a line about a “very low battery”.  But overall, two big thumbs up from me.