Sunday, May 5, 2013

Before Sunset - Movie review

'Before Sunset' picks up some nine years after the two protagonists meet in the first movie 'Before Sunrise'. The American boy Jesse (Ethan Hawke) has now become a writer, and has written about his experiences with a young French woman Celine (Julie Delpy) he met on a train and who spend a night roaming around Vienna, talking to each other and enjoying one another's company. He is now on a book tour to Europe and in Paris, he bumps into Celine at the bookstore. From the bookstore to the cafe, the cafe to the boat, the boat to her home, the two catch up on their lives after their last meeting. They had promised to meet one another six months later at the same place in Vienna, a promise that Jesse honours but Celine does not - because her grandmother died.

Anyway this story is taut as the two protagonists obviously share a superb chemistry and somehow never fulfilled the promise of their first meeting which was sparkling and electric. Now older and in other relationships, he is married and she has a boyfriend, the two realise that perhaps they made mistakes by not pursuing this relationship. They rediscover their frequency, then piece together their lives since that day, then honestly look at their lives now, find the rust melting and the relationship blossoming. Full of lovely little moments, wonderful dialogue and a subtle and fine insight into relationships, 'Before Sunset', is as wonderful as 'Before Sunrise' was, and it's a privilege to take a peek into their lives, their love, their fears and their passions.Coffee, cold evening, warm blanket, one you love, kind of stuff.

Richard Linklater directs, wrote the screenplay with lead actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, which was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay. Hawke and Delpy are bang on as the couple, older and wiser, and its beautiful to watch them. If I recall right, they do not even kiss in the movie, but their chemistry indicates something much deeper. Perhaps the story reminds us of the great irony of our lives where people are distant with the person they live with all their lives and share a closeness with strangers they meet rarely. Must watch especially if you're a romantic.

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