Film Review: Before Sunset (2004)

Richard Linklater gained many fans with Before Sunrise, his delectable romantic drama about young American and young Frenchwoman spending magical night walking on the streets of Vienna after a chance encounter. However, many of those fans were left frustrated with its ambiguous ending, leaving the question of whether the protagonists would meet again unanswered. The 2004 sequel Before Sunset provides a clear answer to this question, serving as the second part of a trilogy concluding with Before Midnight in 2013.

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprising their roles as Jesse and Céline, and the plot, set nine years after their fateful encounter, is set in Paris. Despite a pact to meet again six months later, the reunion never materialized. Jesse is now a successful writer and his latest best-selling novel is inspired by the events in Vienna. He is promoting it in famous Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, where Céline, now working as an environmental activist, comes to see him. In short time before Jesse’s flight black to New York, they discuss their lives, reasons for missing each other, and their unhappiness, and slowly realise that they were meant to be together.

While Before Sunrise worked as realistic, yet conventional drama, approach in Before Sunset differs from is more experimental. The plot is entirely focused on Jesse and Céline, taking place in real time, which results in an unusually short running time. This format allows the passage of time and the characters' ageing to play a significant role in the concept. Unlike the idealistic romantics of nine years ago, Jesse and Céline are now people in their thirties, acutely aware of life's harsh realities and the far-reaching consequences of their choices.

Linklater has built the film around the talents of Hawke and Delpy, who co-wrote the script, taking the passage of time and their own ageing into account, and even adding bits from their real lives into the charaters. The subplot involving Jesse's unhappy marriage and desire to maintain it for the sake of his son is partially inspired by Hawke's own experiences with his marriage to Uma Thurman. The acting in Before Sunset is superb, with both Hawke and Delpy leaving parts of themselves in their roles and maintaining the excellent chemistry from the first film.

However, Before Sunset is a part of trilogy, and some parts of the film are always better than others. Before Sunset is the arguably the worst. It lacks the romantic charm of the first film and can be overly experimental and clever for its own good. The ambiguous ending also leaves an impression of repetitiveness, while the way of answering questions raised in the first film can make an impression of "retconning".

Despite these minor complaints, Before Sunset is still a very good film, and its value increases when viewed as part of the larger trilogy, which, as whole, represents one of the best works of cinema in past few decades.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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