Before Sunset

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful sequel to a perfect movie. Flawless and powerful.
Review: Maybe because I am the same age as Ethan Hawke, I could really relate to Before Sunrise when it came out in 1995. I was hopeful when I heard there was finally a true sequel (not counting the Jesse/Celine segment from Linklater's Waking Life) coming out. Well, just as I could relate to the conversations in Before Sunrise, Before Sunset offers up a whole slew of new topics for us 34 year olds to relate to. Amazing. I am now married with 1 child. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) brought up some things in this film that really hit home. Richard Linklater is a true master at conversation. Unlike Kevin Smith, who writes great dialogue that sounds very unnatural, Linklater's conversations are 100% real. It also helps that Delpy & Hawke have a real love of these characters (Jesse & Celine). Anyone who dismisses this movie as "boring" or self-indulgent is someone I would not want to associate with personally. It is a beautiful work of art. We need more films like this.

Rating:
Summary: What Romance is all About
Review: Romantic movies these days tend to be cliched, unrealistic. They are filled with characters you do not believe in facing situations that would never happen in a million years. That's why it's so refreshing to see such a sweet, touching, realistic and simple movie like Before Sunset.

Following its first installment, Before Sunrise, Sunset picks up 10 years lafter that movie ended. These two characters, who had promised to meet each other at the end of Sunrise, never did actually follow through with their plans. Now Hawke has become a writer and is touring France. And Delpy just happens to go to one of his singings.

Love is still in the air and the characters decide to spend whatever's left of the day together (Hawke is schedule to return to America that very evening). As in Sunrise, they talk aobut nothing and everything; their dreams, regrets, their new lives... It seems that, although both of them have trudged along through the years, their lives have been incomplete without the other. Set in real time, we get to see the denouement of all those years of build-up sadness finally come to the surface.

The film offers a surprise ending that is actually quite fitting for this film. Hawke and Delpy deliver the strongest performances of their careers; they look at ease and comfortable playing these characters. You just end up believing that they ARE these characters.

Linklater knows how to develop characters and plot, and Before Sunset just comes to show the kind of magician that he is; there isn't a dull moment in Before Sunset. The whole movie just gets to you in the best of ways.

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT READ PREVIEW IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS ON THE ENDING
Review: the ending, okay i need help with it... it leaves you hanging.. not as much but still..they go back to celines house and shes played him a song that was for him called "watlz" and then in the song she proclaimes that he meant more to her than shed ever said. then she makes tea and jesse puts in a cd and he puts in nina simone and the song fits perfectly with the situation and shes dancing and imitating nina simone which despite the romantic nature im rolling on the couch because she looks and sounds like my sister in that part who im going to see next month in the french quarter not that anyone care, yadaydayda anyways.. shes imitating nina simone and dancing and jesses just smiling at her and leaning back with no concept of time and celine says in ninas voice "baby... your gonna miss that flight" and he smiles and said "i know". she turns to the side and keeps dancing and then the credits roll. it to me didnt seem like he was going anywhere but the ending is loose.. for those who have seen the movie, what do you think?

Rating:
Summary: small and charming
Review: This is a very minor movie, but it benefits from its Parisian setting and will resonate with anyone who has met up after a long time with someone who was important to them and finds the conversation flowing as if their relationship had continued during that time. The makers wisely confine the movie to 80 minutes, any more would have been overblown. There simply isn't enough here to last any longer. I find it hard to understand the 5 star awards that some amazonies have bestowed on this movie. I can only conclude that they identify so strongly with one of the main characters or with their situation that they simply fail to see the movie's limitations.

Rating:
Summary: A movie to think about
Review: This sequel was really welcome and it was just magnificent! Saw "Before Sunrise" many years ago and was wondering if there would be a sequel.

It was worth waiting for it. Contrary to some reviews posted, it is my belief that watching "Before Sunrise" is a pre-requisite to watching "Before Sunset".

The dialogues are profound, especially in "Before Sunset", and they are what gives the sense of regaining connection after nine years with Celine and Jesse and how life has turned out wrong for the both of them.

They have put to bed - as Jesse says in one of the dialogues - the notion of a "romantic love" on that December 16. But it is so poignant watching these two people grasping the moment (and the chance) to fulfill their most cherished dreams.

What is noteworth, though, is that there is no loving, sensual or desperate kissing. Actually the only kisses they exchange are the ones that European people use to greet old friends. Most of the time they do not even touch each other, but you can see the connection between them in subtle gestures, looks exchanged, and the conversation.

And the most beautiful scene, in my opinion, is when Jesse is talking about the dreams he has and how he wakes up sobbing and Celine tries to touch him...

This movie is worth seeing but to really appreciate it, you must forget about the fast paced action that are good only for the eyes. This movie is not for the eyes, it is for the heart.

Rating:
Summary: Sunset leads to darkness
Review: With an Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay, BEFORE SUNSET deserved a look. A sequel to the stylistically similar BEFORE SUNRISE, it is a chamber film that gives two performers 80 minutes to talk about a plethora of topics.

While the topics sometimes feel forced, the film is extremely thought provoking and challenging. Although I personally disagree with most of the characters logic - its very left coast intelligentsia - I appreciate the `matured' outlook of the characters since their previous meeting nine years earlier.

Some call the film a romance. If so, it is definitely a new type of romance. Both characters are in an uncomfortable place in life, one definitely inappropriate for a romance to occur. All they seem to have in common is a shared political stance and the memory of a train ride years earlier. Romance is quickly cut down to a ridiculous pastime. I found the film a terrible date movie as it tarnishes many of the emotions that a young couple is most likely dealing with...

Like the film, the DVD is very sparse. The film is only 80 minutes. Most reviews seem to give the film glowing reviews. But, I hope that readers are a bit more discriminating when reading them as the film is a very different beast than the reviews can make you expect.