Before Sunset

...is that it ends. This is a fantastic film. It joins the handful of movies where I think I liked the sequel even more than the original, although I liked 'Before Sunrise' as well. Where Sunrise captured the immediacy and urgency of perfect youthful love, Sunset reflects beautifully on the aftermath of that perfection. I remember a line that says "nothing that is complete breathes", and I think that is what we see in this film. A perfect connection with another human is a blessing and a curse; having experienced perfection a part of us stops breathing, unable or unwilling to mar the perfection of that memory.

The dialogue is amazing, the acting is spot-on; this is a great film. In some ways it felt more like reading a great novel than watching a movie, in that I really felt like I knew the characters and was sad the movie had to end. Kind of like saying goodbye to an old friend. If you are an action movie kind of person, skip this flick because it will bore you to tears. If, on the other hand, you like good dialogue, well formed characters, and aren't quite jaded enough to have given up completely on the idea of true love, don't miss this film.

Before Sunset (2004)

**** (out of 4)

Nine years after the events in BEFORE SUNRISE, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) returns to Paris to do a Q&A for his book, which just happens to talk about that night in Vienna. Celine (Julie Delpy) winds up coming to the event and afterwards they've got a little over a hour to catch up on what's been going on in their lives. BEFORE SUNSET is clearly an improvement over the already very good first film but what makes this one here even more special is that it captures the magic of the first picture while at the same time taking a look at the darker issues in their lives. As with the first film, it's really amazing how director Richard Linklater managed to make this feel like a documentary that you're watching and not once do you see Hawke and Delpy as actors but instead you see them as real people that are simply being filmed by an invisible camera. The film manages to really make you believe that the story is picking up nine years after the previous film and I must say that the explanation for the ending of the first movie is extremely well handled. I'm not going to spoil what happened six months later but it's perfectly handled here. Even the first appearance of Celine is extremely beautiful and perfectly done. I really liked the dialogue here but I also like the fact that it once again comes across so real. I say this because I viewed this at the same age of the characters and I thought their feelings on growing older are so true. Hearing Hawke talk about his son and relationships is just something one can connect with and like the previous film the situations make you feel as if you could be the one doing the talking or at least you know someone like these characters. Once again both Hawke and Delpy are terrific together and really fit back well in their characters. There are more emotional or dramatic moments here and both handle them well. Linklater, who wrote the script with the two stars, keeps the film moving at a great pace and really manages to make one fall for the situation that these two are in.

This is simply one of the best movies I've seen, with very few qualifications. Maybe I should say that this is one of the best "simple" movies I've seen. Perhaps it is a bit like cooking, use fresh and quality ingredients and you can make something great without a lot of unnecessary stuff. Unfortunately, Hollywood just doesn't seem to have the ambition to make these type of movies anymore.

In any event, this is one of the few sequels that matches the intensity and integrity of the original. First, it has many simple, yet stylish and honest shots. Perhaps the Scorcese shot is used too much (i.e. following the actors on a long walk without cutting a la Goodfellas kitchen scene), but I don't think so because it makes sense in the context of the movie. Second, many of the shots have interesting emotive effect. For instance, towards the end of the movie, after these "lovers" are fighting the clock (because Ethan Hawke's character needs to catch a flight) and are cruising down the river, they are so engrossed in their conversation and the fact that they are trying to get so much out of the last few minutes they don't notice their ride is coming to an end. However, we the viewer can see what the characters either don't see or don't want to see, that the boat is crossing over the river to its destination and the departure no one wants to deal with. The viewer is given a wonderful sense of dread as the bank approaches in the background, because we know what is going to happen when the ride ends, and like the characters, we don't want it to end either. Even if the film borrows heavily from other great movies (e.g. My Dinner with Andre) it is independent of those influences.

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke were great per usual. Making the dialogue ring true is difficult, but they pull it off. As before, they completely capture the nature of the intimate and friendly conversational style of friends or lovers that is normally edited out of most movies. When people talk, things are not always sequential or rationale, and unlike most movies this movie doesn't try and correct that. Not for a moment does the audience find themselves thinking that this is some sort of charade and no one would ever talk like that. The dialogue is intelligent and insightful, but that is because the characters are intelligent and have a knack for being brutally honest with their thoughts and feelings.

This is movie excellence, and I'm glad some film makers are still trying to make art. Despite the romantic themes this isn't a date flick, so be prepare to deal with the difficult and often unresolved issues of love and relationships that arise.

I'm a movie lover. That first thing said, i have to recognize that i'm really hard on movies, and i usually discard many of them for being under-prepared, for so many errors and things like that. But with "Before Sunset" i felt different. We all know movies are just fakes: what happens, what we see is not the real life. It's just a construction. It's just somebody imagination becoming a visual media. But when i was watching this movie, i didn't felt that. I was seeing real people, with real problems and having thoughts, and fears and hopes. It's the most real acting i ever saw. All about it is just perfect: the ambiance, the set, the city, even the apartment we can see at the near end. Every piece of the movie was connected, and you can tell a whole story about the characters just for hear them, or seeing the way they talk, the things they said, the music they chooses or the things they have. In that way of thinking, i found this movie inspirational, a well-made piece of life, and incredibly deep and wide film. I think this is a portrait of life as only a few can know, of all the shadows and lights we all share.

So, i really recommend it, even if you didn't saw the first one.

I'd been longing to see this one as I'd always thought 'Before Sunrise' was one of the most honest, most real films I'd ever seen, but at the same time I held off seeing the sequel from fear of disappointment. For all of you in the same position, fear not ; Linklater, Hawke and Delphy (for it has surely been a joint effort and labour of love for all three) have done us and themselves proud. I've just seen the film and despite being male and 38 I feel like Roberta Flack must have felt when she penned 'Killing me Softly' after hearing Don McLean sing 'Vincent' in concert; this is - once again - just so close to what it's all about. You want technicalities? The acting, superb; Hawke and Delphy slip right back into their characters, their mannerisms, their sometimes gauche repartee, the way they seem to fence around each other, seeming to go in for the kill then feigning, drawing back…Exquisite. And then the details, the echoes of the first film in the settings but now with a world-weariness, an autumnal note and yet with still that fundamental freshness and optimism that revives the memories of Sunrise's youthfulness and reminds us, as our heroes discuss, that though time changes people, there remains an unchanging core. Just see it; this is about as good as it gets, folks.