The perfect 'Sunset'
Before Sunrise was a dull affair. What a difference nine years makes.
By STEVE PERSALL
Published July 22, 2004
When asked about the dullest movies I've seen in 11 years on this job, Richard Linklater's 1995 release Before Sunrise is a title that usually comes to mind. It was essentially an all-night conversation in Vienna between strangers, two self-absorbed slackers talking through their hats and maybe falling in love. I felt they deserved each other, but I didn't deserve hearing their drivel, so deeply couched in sophisticated bluffing, so certain they had all of life's answers.
Needless to say, the arrival of a sequel, Before Sunset, didn't excite me. I entered the theater dreading what was going to happen onscreen and left more impressed than anyone could expect.
The two characters Jesse and Celine are the same, played again by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, nine years older and without any contact since that single night of getting to know each other. With their aging has come a degree of wisdom through experiences entitling the authority they feigned in 1995. I like these people now, stripped of their youthful sense of moral superiority, saddled with responsibilities they dismissed in the original film. Now they have a right to philosophize. Now they are simply more interesting.
Jesse is a novelist in Paris on a book signing tour, plugging a semiautobiographical novel based on his night with Celine. A reporter asks if there really was such a woman in Jesse's life. His response, still pontificating yet more cohesively than we remember, is interrupted when Celine walks into the room. The spark is still there, and so is a time constraint.
Jesse has little more than an hour before he needs to catch a plane back to the United States. Just enough time for a cup of coffee, strolling through picturesque streets and riding a ferry down the Seine. And talking, lots of talking. Some is reminiscing, some is joshing, and much of it reveals what they've done with lives they felt so naively confident about nine years ago.
Before Sunset is a tribute to the art of conversation, a fluid discussion filmed in long, unbroken takes and performed by Hawke and Delpy with such ease that it always feels spontaneous. They co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater and their affection for the characters is obvious. They have carefully considered Jesse and Celine since the first film wrapped, inhabiting those roles so firmly that, except for their recognizable faces, Before Sunset feels like cinema verite.
Nothing is abruptly revealed about either person; it's a cumulative awareness keeping us as curious as they are. Linklater shot the movie in real time, so the clock is another genuine factor. Some passages drag or seemingly go nowhere, but that only adds to the romantic tension. Yes, these people deserve each other, for better reason than before, but can it happen?
The topics are varied but passion, hope and regret are constant threads. Linklater's handling of the scenes, nearly seamless in their camera transitions without missing a beat of the dialogue, is terrific. I only noticed one instance, in a park when a man walks by the couple, betraying the fact that a new setup was required and the timing isn't quite right. That's a small glitch in the film's deceptively simple-looking logistics.
Seeing Before Sunrise isn't necessary to enjoy Before Sunset - flashbacks and memories handle the necessities - but watching the sequel caused me to reflect positively on a movie I originally disliked. I'm glad now that I saw it, if only to inform such an ingenious encore. Linklater delivers another open-ended finale, with a wonderful closing line delivery, inviting yet another film in nine years about Jesse and Celine. I'd like to see that.
Before SunsetGrade: A-
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Screenplay: Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Rating: R; profanity, sexual references
Running time: 80 min.