Before Sunset Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)July 2nd, 2004
BEFORE SUNSET
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Author Jessie Walker (Ethan Hawke, "Training Day") is giving a reading at the famous Shakespeare & Co. bookstore. As Paris is the last stop on his book tour, he admits that yes, the woman who he spent one night with in his book, was, in fact based on a real woman and real encounter. Then a glance through the window reveals Celine (Julie Delpy, "Before Sunrise"), his romanticized lover of nine years earlier. Assuring his driver he will return in time for his flight, Jessie departs with Celine to catch up on all that has happened since, and must do so "Before Sunset."
Writer/director Richard Linklater ("Waking Life") partners with stars Hawke and Delpy to create a real time two-way conversation (based on characters by Linklater and Kim Krizan) about life and the nature of love in a sequel that reunites one of cinema's most sparkling romantic pairings. The open-ended hope of "Before Sunrise" was epitomized by the youth of its lovers. "Before Sunset" exudes all the encumbrances of maturity - caution, despair, regret - while celebrating the benefits of life experience and anticipation of possibilities long yearned for.
You don't have to have seen "Before Sunrise" to appreciate "Before Sunset," as Linklater provides just enough flashbacks in the film's early going to give a sense of what came before. Celine suggests a local cafe where they can spend a few minutes (she's more conscious of Jessie's ticking clock than he) and the two begin to tentatively reconnect. It's only a few minutes before Celine asks the big question - did he show up for the meeting they had set all those years ago when they didn't have each other's address, phone number or even last name. Turns out he did, she didn't, but only because her beloved grandmother, who she had been on her way to visit when she met Jessie, died the day before. Fate.
Both attempt to keep things light as they discuss what they've done with their lives, but the extremity of their earlier feelings keeps poking through in give away details. Jessie spent four years writing his book (all that time for one evening, Celine ponders). Celine has never found a man who really inspires her. They both keep retreating with bursts of 'I'm kidding,' then draw back towards one another like magnets. A bombshell is dropped when Celine asks about Jessie's family - something she's known all along that has been kept from us - and Jessie talks about how he adores his son, but on the way to his wedding he saw a woman on the corner he could have sworn was her and almost stopped. They discover they both lived in New York City at the same time. Celine lived two blocks from that corner. Fate.
Director of Photography Lee Daniel ("Before Sunrise") takes a very different approach for the sequel, using steadicam for extended, uninterrupted moving takes. The focus never shifts from Hawke and Delpy, who also never stop moving except for a brief cafe stop, and Daniel's tracking shots through the narrow Parisian streets are extraordinary. When the characters sit inside the back of a car or on a boat, it's the landscape that moves, all washed in the light of a sun slipping away.
Hawke and Delpy are both fabulous sliding right back into their characters like a second skin, making the complex talk seem utterly natural within the long takes. He's become a little battle scarred while she's become a bit high-strung from life's disappointments. They're both flawed but keenly intelligent individuals with palpable chemistry.
One of the most amazing aspects of "Before Sunset" is how conversation alone is made so suspenseful. If this movie were a book it would be described as a page-turner. And when it gets to its last scene, all Nina Simone and Delpy threatening to sing a song about her cat before playfully laying her soul bare in Delpy's own "You're So Vain"-like composition, it reaches a new pinnacle. The ending could not be more perfectly played or more perfectly written or once again left more deliciously ambiguous (and possibly foreshadowed by the fictional part of Jessie's book that his editor made him remove). Hawke's last line - two common words - combined with a quick fade to black make up one of the most extraordinary endings in movie history.
A-
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