Movie Review: Before Sunset (2004)

Before Sunset, the second movie of Before Trilogy is my favourite romantic movie, one of the few I have seen countless times. It was released in 2004, nine years after we saw Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) together in Before Sunrise, the first movie of the series. This time, we are reunited with  them in Paris.

The format is similar to the first movie, a couple walking around a beautiful city having an engaging conversation. As in Before Sunrise, Jesse has a flight to catch back to USA, and thus has very limited time with Céline. What follows is an intriguing dialogue, again, between the couple.

While Before Sunrise was an innocent, unadulterated love story of a young couple, Before Sunset is the tale of two middle aged individuals who have lost their naivete, are now mature with age and have had their share of disappointments especially with respect to relationships.

Hawke and Delpy share a great on-scene-chemistry, talking about a bitter truth which is the sad reality of so many people, the fact that most of them go through their lives without finding love or connection with their partners. 

The movie with Paris as its backdrop has some great scenes, which are long and score high on spontaneity. The one where the couple walks up on the stairs to Céline's apartment is one of my favourites. None of them speaks a word but keeps stealing glances at each other, trying to conceal the happiness of being together, and satisfied with the fact that they still love each other. Such sublime emotions captured so brilliantly is a rarity.

There are very few sequels that are better than the original (Toy Story Trilogy comes to mind ) and Before Sunset is definitely one of them.It has received high praises from critics and audience alike. It is rated as 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.1 on IMDb. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy collaborated with Richard Linklater to write a screenplay which received the  Academy Award nomination. The movie swept me off my feet when I first saw it. I hope you would experience something similar. 

Movie Review: Before Sunrise (1995)

Before Sunrise is a romantic drama movie and the first part of the Before Trilogy directed by Richard Linklater. The story follows two young people in their early twenties, Jesse (Ethan Hawke), an American boy and Celine (Julie Delpy), a French girl who meet on a train to Vienna.  They get down and roam about the streets of Vienna talking about their lives, relationships, and over the course of movie, fall into love. Its conversational nature makes it different and I can think of very few movies (Twelve Angry Men, The Man from Earth) that I would put into the same category which are not based much on events but hinge just on the conversation between people. 

It connects because this young couple does not talk about anything extraordinary: their past relationships, parents, etc.; usual stuff two newly made friends would be discussing about. Nothing much happens in the movie. If I have to tell someone about the plot, I would say that a couple walks around Vienna and have an intriguing conversation. That's about it. 

It takes a genius to make an amazing movie out of a minimalist plot and some fantastic dialogues without the usual Hollywood clichés. The script, the characters and the backdrop feel totally realistic. It's rare to find a movie where everything gels together so perfectly. Vienna in the background acts as an icing on the cake. The story could have taken place anywhere but Vienna makes for some lovely visuals. 

The movie is not melodramatic or overtly sentimental, but is easily one of the best romantic movies that I've come across. Its simplicity will make you fall in love with Jesse and Céline warming your heart and soul.

Over the years, this movie has received high critical praise. It has a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and features in the IMDb Top 250 list.