Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsEngrossing Conversational Drama, 2nd of 3; Not Quite As Good As The Original
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2013
The first thing to ask yourself is: Do you like movies where nothing happens? Not even an argument? That is this film---both of them actually; A movie about two thirty-somethings who met on a train 9 years ago and spent that night walking the streets of Vienna, also doing nothing but talking. Now they've run into each other again----he is now a married author who's written a book about that night, hoping she'd show up to one of the signings, and in Paris, she does.
No action (save for some walking and eating). No Violence, not even any arguments. No sex or nudity. Not for everybody.
One can fall into using words like "moving", and "inspiring" but one would be getting careless. "Before Sunset" and "Before Sunrise" are at the drier end of RomComs, or as they're also often called "Chick Flicks". The conversations aren't deep, don't search out the existential questions or the order of the Universe. In fact, as the characters establish themselves and their lives 9 years on from our first encounter, some of the conversation sounds like a laundry list of righteous Lefty do-gooderism. One is caught nodding in tedium, "Okay, okay, we get that, let's get on with it..." And then, they leave the cafe and start to walk and the movie is back where we liked it 9 years ago. A nice, long, conversation between two people who clearly have deep affections for each other and official ties to two other people, lives that have become encumbered in the absence of a real connection between the two erstwhile lovers, and now they've met up again....
Nothing is resolved. There's a third movie ("Before Midnight") set to premier at Cannes this year. I'm betting that superfluous spouses are going to have died...
This isn't the first film where the same actors have collaborated over a long period of time---"Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" are two modern epics; then there's the "Thin Man Series" that started out on the elegant side of the Depression and died a painful death in the wholesome homefront of rediscovered pieties during WWII. Julie Delpy is an graceful older version of her girlish self; Ethan Hawke looks as if he's taken up an entry level existence in a Charles Bukowski novel, between films.
I like this concept---one slim story, the same two actors, one film every 9 years. Something will probably happen in the third film, and if it doesn't wipe out the franchise, I can see watching this concept go on until both actors are old. Will they ever get married? Will that complete or destroy them?
Hmmm.
Again, not a film for everybody, but if you like this sort of slow moving river of a movie, you should enjoy this one (and you might want to check out Catherine Deneuve in "A Christmas Tale" which is a somewhat more energetic and spicy version of the same idea---not a holiday film by any standards).
