Expertly crafted, acted, and directed. Linklater obviously hits the nail on the head in all technical film making aspects. This film drained me though...I mean talk about a jarring experience. Rooting for the fantasy love that the first 2 films portrayed really set me up for resentment of a scene late in the film. Everything about it was realistic and thought-provoking but it was upsetting. I'm glad the ending provided hope for the future. I believe they stay together. Love isn't perfect, but its love nonetheless and finding true love like the love Jesse and celine have is rare. I just cant see myself going back and enjoying this film nearly as much as Sunrise and Sunset. Maybe as I age, I will appreciate more aspects of the arguments presented in the film. Yet, I still really appreciated the daring direction this film went in and it kept me on the edge of my seat.
384 Reviews
The series keeps being great
SnoopyStyle20 May 2014
It's 9 years after 'Before Sunset' in the 3rd movie of the Before series. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) are unmarried living in Paris with their twin daughters. Jesse has written 2 more books. It's one of the last days of their summer vacation in Greece. Jesse sees his son Hank off after spending the summer with him. Hank's mom is still angry and Jesse wants so much to spend more time with him in Chicago. Celine is thinking about taking a government job with complications.
They are 41. They have kids. It has the naturalistic long takes very much in keeping with the previous movies. I love the sly humor and human scale of their lives. There is also something great about growing old with these characters. This is what comes after happily-ever-after of the second movie. I do like the scenes with Jesse and Celine alone more than the scenes with other people. I don't mind the other characters but I loved the private moments with just those two wandering around bullshitting. Also it's great to have them continue their relationship with their problems.
They are 41. They have kids. It has the naturalistic long takes very much in keeping with the previous movies. I love the sly humor and human scale of their lives. There is also something great about growing old with these characters. This is what comes after happily-ever-after of the second movie. I do like the scenes with Jesse and Celine alone more than the scenes with other people. I don't mind the other characters but I loved the private moments with just those two wandering around bullshitting. Also it's great to have them continue their relationship with their problems.
So realistically good, it hurts!
xeniamotsou6 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I, personally, am from Greece, so I was curious to see how they would introduce Greek people and our culture. I have to say I am very happy with the result. Even though it's the third movie, they managed to keep it interesting, with smart dialogues still not missing from the script. It was really fascinating how they inserted Greek habits and parts of everyday life, without it seeming forced or unnecessary. I really liked how they presented the different ideas of love in each movie. "Before Sunrise" showing us young, innocent love, "Before Sunset" displaying the difficulties you face as an adult being confused about what you really want for your love life, and finally "Before Midnight". In this film they successfully introduce to the viewer the phase in two people's lives, where they have settled down and try to deal with some of the problems a married couple with kids could encounter. The lead actors had great on-screen chemistry once again, achieving to realistically present us these situations. Overall, I believe that it's a smart, entertaining movie with so much to offer. I truly recommend it.
Third time's a Charm!
flydocfly21 January 2013
I just saw this amazing movie at its Sundance premiere. It's wonderful on so many levels I don't know where to start. The performances are fantastic. If Julie Delpy doesn't get an Oscar nomination it would be a shame (the only stupider thing the Academy could do is have 10 best picture nominations.) Ethan Hawke's performance is brilliant in its own way, however, it's a less showy part and I'm not certain it'll get the recognition it deserves.
The writing is astounding. Sharp, intelligent, biting, humorous, with staggering subtext, but most importantly--it feels real. If the screenplay doesn't get an Oscar nomination it would be a shame (the only thing stupider the Academy could do is have 15 best picture nominations.)
Rick Linklater is now officially the Jedi master of indie filmmaking (Yoda Soderbergh actually said he's giving up filmmaking.) SLACKERS was only 22 years ago, and Linklater has matured into one of the most original filmic storytellers in the history of the medium. 95% of the movie is two-shots of people talking (the other 5% is people talking at a dinner table and cut aways to the gorgeous Greek landscape.) I don't know any other living filmmaker who could pull this off. There's a one-take during a car drive that lasts probably ten minutes (before a brief cut away), however, it goes on for probably another ten minutes (and Linklater said he could have kept the whole take, but needed to show ruins along the country side and cut away for script purposes, not performance.) There's a 30 minute scene of the two actors in a hotel room and I didn't even notice it (by that time I was so invested in the characters and their actions and emotions I wasn't even aware of time, it wasn't until the post screening Q&A that Linklater mentioned the actual time of the scene.)
All three, Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke have matured into their rolls (writing, directing, acting) so easily that it's all just great fun for them and the audience. This is a must see for many reasons (including the history of film--there's only one other modern trilogy where the final film is the best--LOTR, and their food budget was probably more than the total cost of BEFORE MIDNIGHT.)
i could go on gushing about this movie ad nauseum, however I'll finish by saying that BEFORE MIDNIGHT is what indie film making (and the Sundance Film Festival) is all about--truly original, creative, unique, interesting characters and their stories, told outside the Hollywood system, by people passionate about their craft (and in this case at the top of their craft).
The writing is astounding. Sharp, intelligent, biting, humorous, with staggering subtext, but most importantly--it feels real. If the screenplay doesn't get an Oscar nomination it would be a shame (the only thing stupider the Academy could do is have 15 best picture nominations.)
Rick Linklater is now officially the Jedi master of indie filmmaking (Yoda Soderbergh actually said he's giving up filmmaking.) SLACKERS was only 22 years ago, and Linklater has matured into one of the most original filmic storytellers in the history of the medium. 95% of the movie is two-shots of people talking (the other 5% is people talking at a dinner table and cut aways to the gorgeous Greek landscape.) I don't know any other living filmmaker who could pull this off. There's a one-take during a car drive that lasts probably ten minutes (before a brief cut away), however, it goes on for probably another ten minutes (and Linklater said he could have kept the whole take, but needed to show ruins along the country side and cut away for script purposes, not performance.) There's a 30 minute scene of the two actors in a hotel room and I didn't even notice it (by that time I was so invested in the characters and their actions and emotions I wasn't even aware of time, it wasn't until the post screening Q&A that Linklater mentioned the actual time of the scene.)
All three, Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke have matured into their rolls (writing, directing, acting) so easily that it's all just great fun for them and the audience. This is a must see for many reasons (including the history of film--there's only one other modern trilogy where the final film is the best--LOTR, and their food budget was probably more than the total cost of BEFORE MIDNIGHT.)
i could go on gushing about this movie ad nauseum, however I'll finish by saying that BEFORE MIDNIGHT is what indie film making (and the Sundance Film Festival) is all about--truly original, creative, unique, interesting characters and their stories, told outside the Hollywood system, by people passionate about their craft (and in this case at the top of their craft).
Everything's better with maturity
Maxcyjen27 February 2013
I just saw Richard Linklater's Before Midnight his newest and third film about Jesse and Celine the couple who meet as young adults in Before Sunrise and re-meet as adults in Before Sunset (one of my five favorite films).
This is simply brilliant film making: funny, raw, emotionally honest and complicated. The couple (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy who both co-wrote with Linklater) are now in their 40s and face some very real challenges to their menage. I started laughing and crying within about 3 minutes and both emotions kept up until the very end. Everyone sat through the credits so they could wipe their faces clean. Brilliant acting . . .
This film gives one hope for the state of American film making and reminds you that Linklater is one of our most underrated auteurs. I sincerely hope he continues and I live long enough to see the couple well into their senior years.
Even if you have never seen the first two movies, do not miss this one.
This is simply brilliant film making: funny, raw, emotionally honest and complicated. The couple (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy who both co-wrote with Linklater) are now in their 40s and face some very real challenges to their menage. I started laughing and crying within about 3 minutes and both emotions kept up until the very end. Everyone sat through the credits so they could wipe their faces clean. Brilliant acting . . .
This film gives one hope for the state of American film making and reminds you that Linklater is one of our most underrated auteurs. I sincerely hope he continues and I live long enough to see the couple well into their senior years.
Even if you have never seen the first two movies, do not miss this one.
Before Midnight is a Masterpiece (****)
ClaytonDavis1 April 2013
Before Midnight is a different type of animal this time around. I didn't expect the team could top an already beautiful story but what they achieve in the newest installment is the most accurate and authentic portrayals of love since Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). The film is an absolute marvel, showcasing the very best dialogue and capturing the sheer essence of acting brilliance from stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Director Richard Linklater has also created the crowning work of his directorial career, showing incredible restraint and focus on two characters that still feel just as new and fresh as the day we met them. The film opens with a near fifteen minute take that gets its hook into you and never lets up. It's a cinematic sensation.
Midnight takes place nine years after the events of Sunset. Jesse and Céline are still together and have managed to have twin girls, Nina and Ella, and are living in Europe. The film takes place at the tail end of a six-week vacation in Greece where Jesse has just dropped off his thirteen-year-old son Hank, from his previous marriage, at the airport for his return back to Chicago. Realizing that he's missing the formative years of Hank's teenage life, Jesse and Céline explore the option of possibly making a move to America, leaving opportunities and a life in Europe behind.
This film is easily the best film of the franchise so far. Packing an emotional and euphoric punch like third-installments like Toy Story 3 (2010) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), films that have a close-nit relation to their predecessors but saving all the masterful speeches and epiphanies for the viewer to indulge in their finales. Obviously there's no big fantasy battle or a near death experience in an incinerator for the meaning of life to be physically explained but in the power of words, and words alone, Before Midnight manages to become the poster child for screen writing and brilliant storytelling for years to come. The film doesn't take any cheap shots with every scene constructed from real emotion and feeling incredibly authentic and genuine. There are long takes for the viewer to be present whether it's in an airport conversation between Jesse and Hank or at a lunch with in the beautiful valleys of Greece or even in a hotel room where a man and a woman share intimacy like older lovers typically do.
Ethan Hawke is an actor that never quite caught onto the awards circuit for some odd reason. Nominated for his performance alongside Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001), Hawke has shown tremendous range throughout his career including missed opportunities for recognition in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). As Jesse this time around, Hawke uses every ounce of magnetism, charisma, and acting ability to bring himself to the levels of legendary actors like Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando. He becomes a man all too familiar to the male viewer and ignites the film into a spectacular frenzy of passion. Hawke isn't afraid to show the inner turmoil of Jesse as the growing cancer of guilt has come to the surface. He works moment after moment in expressing the bewildering beauty of love at the expense of one's own values and sacrifice. He's almost the distant, and utterly toned down, cousin of Freddie Quell from Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012), a man so complex but inserted with terrific character beats and an actor willing to commit entirely to the craft to portray him flawlessly. Hawke surpasses not only his past features but the very being of himself as an actor. It's his finest turn yet.
Julie Delpy is as imaginative and magnetic as ever. She's a wonderful presence, often very skillful example of acting on the finest level. She executes the pure feelings of uncertainty in conjuncture with the script which is a clear and marvelous character study on love. She's wildly immersed into Céline, accomplishing not only a somewhat free- spirited damaged woman but a sex appeal that triggers any person's romantic desires. She's an effortless existence in the film, which makes Céline not only explicitly real, but tenderly and mysteriously loving for the viewer. It's a performance that defines her abilities as an actress and one that will be remembered fifty years from now as we all think back on the amazement of Julie Delpy.
The film is breathtakingly accurate and precise in capturing the love and relationship of couples, it will and should be studied by film schools and writers for years to come. Linklater bares his soul, frame after frame, showing confidence of his own idiosyncratic vision of this story and being as accessible to even the youngest of people. This is Linklater's most personal tribute to the scope of cinema and will be his defining moment on the silver screen. The film is a must-see and is the first masterpiece that 2013 has to offer. Before Midnight is an instant Oscar-contender and a triumph in filmmaking. It's the go-to film of the Tribeca Film Festival and the best picture of the year so far.
Midnight takes place nine years after the events of Sunset. Jesse and Céline are still together and have managed to have twin girls, Nina and Ella, and are living in Europe. The film takes place at the tail end of a six-week vacation in Greece where Jesse has just dropped off his thirteen-year-old son Hank, from his previous marriage, at the airport for his return back to Chicago. Realizing that he's missing the formative years of Hank's teenage life, Jesse and Céline explore the option of possibly making a move to America, leaving opportunities and a life in Europe behind.
This film is easily the best film of the franchise so far. Packing an emotional and euphoric punch like third-installments like Toy Story 3 (2010) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), films that have a close-nit relation to their predecessors but saving all the masterful speeches and epiphanies for the viewer to indulge in their finales. Obviously there's no big fantasy battle or a near death experience in an incinerator for the meaning of life to be physically explained but in the power of words, and words alone, Before Midnight manages to become the poster child for screen writing and brilliant storytelling for years to come. The film doesn't take any cheap shots with every scene constructed from real emotion and feeling incredibly authentic and genuine. There are long takes for the viewer to be present whether it's in an airport conversation between Jesse and Hank or at a lunch with in the beautiful valleys of Greece or even in a hotel room where a man and a woman share intimacy like older lovers typically do.
Ethan Hawke is an actor that never quite caught onto the awards circuit for some odd reason. Nominated for his performance alongside Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001), Hawke has shown tremendous range throughout his career including missed opportunities for recognition in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). As Jesse this time around, Hawke uses every ounce of magnetism, charisma, and acting ability to bring himself to the levels of legendary actors like Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando. He becomes a man all too familiar to the male viewer and ignites the film into a spectacular frenzy of passion. Hawke isn't afraid to show the inner turmoil of Jesse as the growing cancer of guilt has come to the surface. He works moment after moment in expressing the bewildering beauty of love at the expense of one's own values and sacrifice. He's almost the distant, and utterly toned down, cousin of Freddie Quell from Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012), a man so complex but inserted with terrific character beats and an actor willing to commit entirely to the craft to portray him flawlessly. Hawke surpasses not only his past features but the very being of himself as an actor. It's his finest turn yet.
Julie Delpy is as imaginative and magnetic as ever. She's a wonderful presence, often very skillful example of acting on the finest level. She executes the pure feelings of uncertainty in conjuncture with the script which is a clear and marvelous character study on love. She's wildly immersed into Céline, accomplishing not only a somewhat free- spirited damaged woman but a sex appeal that triggers any person's romantic desires. She's an effortless existence in the film, which makes Céline not only explicitly real, but tenderly and mysteriously loving for the viewer. It's a performance that defines her abilities as an actress and one that will be remembered fifty years from now as we all think back on the amazement of Julie Delpy.
The film is breathtakingly accurate and precise in capturing the love and relationship of couples, it will and should be studied by film schools and writers for years to come. Linklater bares his soul, frame after frame, showing confidence of his own idiosyncratic vision of this story and being as accessible to even the youngest of people. This is Linklater's most personal tribute to the scope of cinema and will be his defining moment on the silver screen. The film is a must-see and is the first masterpiece that 2013 has to offer. Before Midnight is an instant Oscar-contender and a triumph in filmmaking. It's the go-to film of the Tribeca Film Festival and the best picture of the year so far.
'Midnight' beats 'Sunset' and 'Sunrise' on its relevance - truly a masterpiece in acting, story and script.
strand28008 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I was lucky enough to get tickets for the one of the Before Midnight- screenings at the Berlin Film Festival this year.
Being a big fan of both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, I was truly thrilled to see this new (last?) chapter of Jesse and Celine's relationship.
To sum up the story shortly without spoiling too much, we meet Jesse and Celine 9 years after the events of Sunset. They are now a couple with a pair of twin daughters, and Jesse is struggling to adapt to the role of being a separated father for his son, Hank, having him fly several times back and forth between the United States and France, where Jesse lives with Celine and the daughters. On the last day of their vacation in Greece, Jesse and Celine are trying to find the spark in their relationship again - we are dealing with a couple, like so many others, who in their 'middleage crisis' start asking themselves "where am I in my life, why do I live it this way, and does my husband/wife still love me?".
For me, the relevance of the film, is its force, along with of course the acting and the script, which Hawke and Delpy again have written together with Linklater. Hawke and Delpy are so much into their characters and you feel how deep their relationship is established - it feels very natural and just like watching a couple in the 21st century. We live in a world where couple's separate, find a new partner, get children, separates again, find a new partner, get new children again (maybe this is a bit extreme, but something like that). Both the husband and wife have jobs and their relationships are affected when suddenly, the only things they are dealing with his who gets the groceries, who picks up the children from the kindergarten etc., and the love and romance between one another slowly fades away. That's the relevance to the age we live in now, that is so strong in Midnight.
I can highly recommend fans of the two first movies to see it, and if you are not familiar with the movies, you are certainly in for a treat! In my eyes, Midnight works very well for as an end to a trilogy, but the door is of course a little open for another sequel 9 years in the future (2022...?)
Again, the acting is superb (the entire hotel scene is magnificent!), and dialog is so grounded, natural and strong and the film has relevance and could inspire a lot of couples struggling with their relationship to their partner.
10/10
Being a big fan of both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, I was truly thrilled to see this new (last?) chapter of Jesse and Celine's relationship.
To sum up the story shortly without spoiling too much, we meet Jesse and Celine 9 years after the events of Sunset. They are now a couple with a pair of twin daughters, and Jesse is struggling to adapt to the role of being a separated father for his son, Hank, having him fly several times back and forth between the United States and France, where Jesse lives with Celine and the daughters. On the last day of their vacation in Greece, Jesse and Celine are trying to find the spark in their relationship again - we are dealing with a couple, like so many others, who in their 'middleage crisis' start asking themselves "where am I in my life, why do I live it this way, and does my husband/wife still love me?".
For me, the relevance of the film, is its force, along with of course the acting and the script, which Hawke and Delpy again have written together with Linklater. Hawke and Delpy are so much into their characters and you feel how deep their relationship is established - it feels very natural and just like watching a couple in the 21st century. We live in a world where couple's separate, find a new partner, get children, separates again, find a new partner, get new children again (maybe this is a bit extreme, but something like that). Both the husband and wife have jobs and their relationships are affected when suddenly, the only things they are dealing with his who gets the groceries, who picks up the children from the kindergarten etc., and the love and romance between one another slowly fades away. That's the relevance to the age we live in now, that is so strong in Midnight.
I can highly recommend fans of the two first movies to see it, and if you are not familiar with the movies, you are certainly in for a treat! In my eyes, Midnight works very well for as an end to a trilogy, but the door is of course a little open for another sequel 9 years in the future (2022...?)
Again, the acting is superb (the entire hotel scene is magnificent!), and dialog is so grounded, natural and strong and the film has relevance and could inspire a lot of couples struggling with their relationship to their partner.
10/10
The three films together are stunning! But this is the least of them
secondtake15 November 2013
Before Midnight (2013)
The most interesting facet to this slim movie is that it continues the singular predecessors with such glowing continuity. Most people know that Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke started their conversational fictional companionship on film with "Before Sunrise" and then continued it with "Before Sunset." The first of these was shot in 1995, and the next followup was nine years later, and then this new one, nine years more.
If you saw (and liked) the first two films as I did, this continuance alone makes "Before Midnight" worth checking out. And if there is a huge deadening flaw here it is simply that the continuing continues so expectedly. There are times here when this couple—which has been living together for nearly a decade—talk as though they are on that first date in 1995. It's not that they don't know certain things about each other, but more that they are talking about things as if for the first time--and they are such common things. Surely they've gotten around to some of this stuff before. It's not endlessly revelatory.
The director of all three films is Richard Linklater, and he absolutely gets a lot of the credit for an easy, almost languid style. Some would call it boring—all talk and walk, nothing much to watch. But it isn't boring. The first movie for sure is the most fresh (it was the first one), but the second keeps things really interesting because the two leads (Jesse and Celine) are meeting up again after a huge gap, and it's an odd and unpredictable situation. By 2013 things have fundamentally solidified. They are a happy couple with twin girls, living in France. The day proceeds with conversation, and we listen closely (there is nothing else to do), but in fact there is nothing to be surprised or even curious about.
So the words become so critical they can't help but fail. A long dinner conversation with a group of educated friends is fast paced and filled with clever banter, but it goes nowhere. Yes, you absolutely wish you were there (and maybe that you had such friends—that would depend). But what is said is not so wonderful after all. It's just a mood of warm, lively companionship.
Likewise elsewhere. It's all fun and clever. When they squabble a bit it never seems remotely possible that the fight is for real, or that the incredible ease and love shown earlier in the movie would unravel with a slight ill wind. The very last scene confirms, and is oddly wan.
So—a mixed bag. I truly think if you haven't seen these films you might find the style and the remarkable believability (at times) really special. It is. But for me it was more special and more interesting as a story in the earlier movies. This one can now not be separated from those, however, and the great whole, a trilogy with a possibility of more to come, is a special and worthy part of contemporary cinema. Start somewhere and see what this is all about.
The most interesting facet to this slim movie is that it continues the singular predecessors with such glowing continuity. Most people know that Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke started their conversational fictional companionship on film with "Before Sunrise" and then continued it with "Before Sunset." The first of these was shot in 1995, and the next followup was nine years later, and then this new one, nine years more.
If you saw (and liked) the first two films as I did, this continuance alone makes "Before Midnight" worth checking out. And if there is a huge deadening flaw here it is simply that the continuing continues so expectedly. There are times here when this couple—which has been living together for nearly a decade—talk as though they are on that first date in 1995. It's not that they don't know certain things about each other, but more that they are talking about things as if for the first time--and they are such common things. Surely they've gotten around to some of this stuff before. It's not endlessly revelatory.
The director of all three films is Richard Linklater, and he absolutely gets a lot of the credit for an easy, almost languid style. Some would call it boring—all talk and walk, nothing much to watch. But it isn't boring. The first movie for sure is the most fresh (it was the first one), but the second keeps things really interesting because the two leads (Jesse and Celine) are meeting up again after a huge gap, and it's an odd and unpredictable situation. By 2013 things have fundamentally solidified. They are a happy couple with twin girls, living in France. The day proceeds with conversation, and we listen closely (there is nothing else to do), but in fact there is nothing to be surprised or even curious about.
So the words become so critical they can't help but fail. A long dinner conversation with a group of educated friends is fast paced and filled with clever banter, but it goes nowhere. Yes, you absolutely wish you were there (and maybe that you had such friends—that would depend). But what is said is not so wonderful after all. It's just a mood of warm, lively companionship.
Likewise elsewhere. It's all fun and clever. When they squabble a bit it never seems remotely possible that the fight is for real, or that the incredible ease and love shown earlier in the movie would unravel with a slight ill wind. The very last scene confirms, and is oddly wan.
So—a mixed bag. I truly think if you haven't seen these films you might find the style and the remarkable believability (at times) really special. It is. But for me it was more special and more interesting as a story in the earlier movies. This one can now not be separated from those, however, and the great whole, a trilogy with a possibility of more to come, is a special and worthy part of contemporary cinema. Start somewhere and see what this is all about.
Not as wonderful as the last one but definitely worth your time
elainesanfey22 June 2013
I enjoyed Before Sunrise when I first saw it, and thought it was a clever, charming movie with an innovative approach. In my opinion though, Before Sunrise was vastly elevated by being paired with Before Sunset 9 years later.
Before Sunset is an exceptional movie, much more melancholic than its predecessor, but understandably so because the characters had grown up and had to let go of childish notions of fairytale happy ever afters. What makes Before Sunset so wonderful though is the notion throughout that even though things went wrong it's never too late to fix them.
Before Midnight is a different film to the previous two. In my opinion it is about two people who, having made the mistake of losing contact the first time, will work to make sure it never happens again. They were never going to have a fairytale life because they are both very complicated, and I liked the realism of how their relationship developed as they got older.
I strongly disagree with other reviewers who say that Before Midnight can be watched without seeing the previous two. I criticised people who did that for Before Sunset and would caution against it even more for this one. Before Midnight relies on the idea that the audience understands how complicated the characters are and therefore continues to like them even when they do things which could seem nasty and shallow.
In summary, while my favourite of the three movies remains Before Sunset, Before Midnight adds richly to the overarching story that has been told, in real time over 18 years, of two characters that fans of the series have grown to love. As a three part series, the Before movies are practically perfect.
Before Sunset is an exceptional movie, much more melancholic than its predecessor, but understandably so because the characters had grown up and had to let go of childish notions of fairytale happy ever afters. What makes Before Sunset so wonderful though is the notion throughout that even though things went wrong it's never too late to fix them.
Before Midnight is a different film to the previous two. In my opinion it is about two people who, having made the mistake of losing contact the first time, will work to make sure it never happens again. They were never going to have a fairytale life because they are both very complicated, and I liked the realism of how their relationship developed as they got older.
I strongly disagree with other reviewers who say that Before Midnight can be watched without seeing the previous two. I criticised people who did that for Before Sunset and would caution against it even more for this one. Before Midnight relies on the idea that the audience understands how complicated the characters are and therefore continues to like them even when they do things which could seem nasty and shallow.
In summary, while my favourite of the three movies remains Before Sunset, Before Midnight adds richly to the overarching story that has been told, in real time over 18 years, of two characters that fans of the series have grown to love. As a three part series, the Before movies are practically perfect.
Mixed feelings
grantss11 November 2014
Mixed feelings about this movie, the third of Richard Linklater's trilogy.
The trilogy started in 1995 with Before Sunrise, continued in 2004 with Before Sunset and now, another nine years later, we have Before Midnight. The movies follow the lives and love of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), with the span in years between movies reflecting the spans in their lives. We are getting snapshots of their lives, at nine-year intervals.
Before Sunrise was OK, but not great. Really a dressed-up romantic drama, just with a more realistic and original plot and more subtle direction than your average romance movie.
Before Sunset was the pick of the bunch. Rather than just a snapshot, it relates, through their dialogue, all the happenings in the last nine years of their lives, and demonstrates how much each of them were key in the other's life. It had more of a complete story and more character development.
Before Midnight now picks up with them together, with their two kids, holidaying in Greece. Like the first two, it is very dialogue-intensive. Like the first two (especially Before Sunrise) the dialogue can be a big negative at times: pretentious, navel- gazing stuff.
However, on the plus side, we get to see how relationships end up. Romantic dramas tend to end with the couple walking off into the sunset, very much in love, blissfully happy and without a care in the world. They never cover all the unromantic, even irritating, stuff that comes after it: kids, domestic life, mundanity. This does.
On the downside, there is a reason this is never covered: it's boring, even annoying. Who wants to see a bitter, very protracted argument between husband and wife? Or people discussing domestic stuff?
Thus, a two-edged sword.
So, kudos to Richard Linklater for the concept of these movies and for not shying away from the less glamorous domestic years in a relationship. However, the domestic years aren't very entertaining to watch...
The trilogy started in 1995 with Before Sunrise, continued in 2004 with Before Sunset and now, another nine years later, we have Before Midnight. The movies follow the lives and love of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), with the span in years between movies reflecting the spans in their lives. We are getting snapshots of their lives, at nine-year intervals.
Before Sunrise was OK, but not great. Really a dressed-up romantic drama, just with a more realistic and original plot and more subtle direction than your average romance movie.
Before Sunset was the pick of the bunch. Rather than just a snapshot, it relates, through their dialogue, all the happenings in the last nine years of their lives, and demonstrates how much each of them were key in the other's life. It had more of a complete story and more character development.
Before Midnight now picks up with them together, with their two kids, holidaying in Greece. Like the first two, it is very dialogue-intensive. Like the first two (especially Before Sunrise) the dialogue can be a big negative at times: pretentious, navel- gazing stuff.
However, on the plus side, we get to see how relationships end up. Romantic dramas tend to end with the couple walking off into the sunset, very much in love, blissfully happy and without a care in the world. They never cover all the unromantic, even irritating, stuff that comes after it: kids, domestic life, mundanity. This does.
On the downside, there is a reason this is never covered: it's boring, even annoying. Who wants to see a bitter, very protracted argument between husband and wife? Or people discussing domestic stuff?
Thus, a two-edged sword.
So, kudos to Richard Linklater for the concept of these movies and for not shying away from the less glamorous domestic years in a relationship. However, the domestic years aren't very entertaining to watch...
True breath of fresh air in a time full of poorly-written movies and cheap special effects
expressjordan1 June 2013
First and foremost, this is not your typical mainstream summer movie. However, if you're reading this, then I'm sure you've already seen the two preceding films, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. If you have, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. This movie is driven by the characters and their dialog. No fancy special effects, no elaborate sets, no uber-popular actors to stuff in the movie to make people watch it. Just great dialog from two excellent actors.
Now that that's out of the way, I was a little uninterested when hearing about this movie, that it was filmed in Greece. However, after seeing the film tonight, I find that the setting was quite lovely and really had little to do with the movie itself. The movie was more about how these two main characters are dealing with getting older and being parents, and how over time, your opinions about things and about each other can change.
One thing I've always liked about these movies is the gritty realism of the two characters. Being an American myself, and previously having a French girlfriend (and living in France), I can totally relate to the two characters and the idiosyncrasies that are attributed to both of them in this story of their lives.
This movie was, once again, a model example of good dialog and great characters! I was very happy to see this movie, and I'm glad to see the writers haven't lost their touch. This movie was written by not only the director, but also the two main actors, and this series is really their "baby" - you can tell much love and care went into these films, even though they are all shot very quickly and with a small budget. I love how there are very few cuts in most of the scenes, and you can tell that everything about this movie was simple. This is a true breath of fresh air in time full of poorly-written movies and cheap special effects.
Now that that's out of the way, I was a little uninterested when hearing about this movie, that it was filmed in Greece. However, after seeing the film tonight, I find that the setting was quite lovely and really had little to do with the movie itself. The movie was more about how these two main characters are dealing with getting older and being parents, and how over time, your opinions about things and about each other can change.
One thing I've always liked about these movies is the gritty realism of the two characters. Being an American myself, and previously having a French girlfriend (and living in France), I can totally relate to the two characters and the idiosyncrasies that are attributed to both of them in this story of their lives.
This movie was, once again, a model example of good dialog and great characters! I was very happy to see this movie, and I'm glad to see the writers haven't lost their touch. This movie was written by not only the director, but also the two main actors, and this series is really their "baby" - you can tell much love and care went into these films, even though they are all shot very quickly and with a small budget. I love how there are very few cuts in most of the scenes, and you can tell that everything about this movie was simple. This is a true breath of fresh air in time full of poorly-written movies and cheap special effects.
They butchered the Celine character
julieshotmail13 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
6 stars for the scenery. While Jesse still has his boyish charm, endearingly played by Ethan Hawke, the Celine character took a nose dive in this one. They made her out to be sulky and angry and somewhat fake. Julia Delpy is very talented but this one is a miss for her. The enigmatic Celine in the first movie is gone, instead now we are presented with a garden-variety resentful, know-it-all, and condescending wife, who would not let up even after repeated attempts by Jesse to calm her down and cheer her up. The Celine embodiment here is all wrong and has lost the magic of her character and their passion from the first one. This is a movie, and it should allow you an escape from mundane life, not to be thrust watching a couple continuously bicker because the wife wouldn't stop nagging with her drama!
Too depressingly realistic to be enjoyable
zevt26 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
(I'll warn when I get to the spoilers)
This is the third in a trilogy which includes Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. I can't imagine this one being watched as a stand-alone movie and having anything near the effect it should. In fact, I would even recommend watching these several years apart. I watched these movies as they were released, and being the same age as this fictional but very realistic couple made it more of an involving experience.
The strongest aspects of this trilogy are the flowing endless dialogue, the acting, and the real characters. As opposed to many other opinions though, I sometimes felt that the dialogue in the last two movies became too pretentious and condensed to be real. These movies need more silence, pauses and looks.
In Before Sunrise, they were in their early 20s, smart and practical but open to experience an idealistic short romance based on their chance encounter. They connected, they were charming, they were real, and they pulled it off much to the delight of audiences.
In Before Sunset and nine years later, for the first half of the movie, they were unbearably self-obsessed and pretentious and talked at each other instead of with each other. They spent a few hours together, and gradually their attraction and chemistry came back, and made you believe that they may actually recover from their last few years of miserable relationships and closed-minded lifeless lives that were obviously bringing them down, as long as they got together and developed what they had. Some charm and romance crept in despite their newfound self-deprecating cynicism, leaving audiences with an open-ended ending full of potential. I hated it at first, then grew to like it better on second viewing.
In Before Midnight, in a too-realistic portrayal, they have been a couple for 9 years (with kids), but their personality differences have not been worked on and their marriage is on the rocks.
Jesse is a successful writer but his break with his previous wife and son in order to be with Celine is causing increasing strains in his current marriage. Little annoying things he does add to the strain, but what is very obvious in this movie is that she doesn't love him anymore so every little thing adds to the complaints.
Celine in this movie is like an amalgam of every neurosis in modern women. She is an angry activist, an angry feminist, an unfulfilled angry wife, a woman who is so lost and confused regarding what she wants, she cannot be satisfied no matter how many efforts he makes to clarify things and express his love for her, and she doesn't have the tools and outlook to fix her feelings for him so this is a Sisyphean task in any case. As three-dimensional as she is, this is not a sympathetic character to say the least.
*spoilers*
Which is why, at the end of the movie, anyone with a brain will realize that the small bone she throws him at the end is worthless and that this marriage is doomed. Which is why, as realistic as this movie is, it simply was not enjoyable. Not that movies need to be fun or romantic, but I do expect them to be rewarding or insightful in one way or another. I do not need to go to the movies to watch neurotic people flail at their last threads of marriage and fail at it miserably because of commonplace emotional incompetence.
If there is a next movie in a few years, the only possible outcome is that they got divorced soon after this night, and they get together one more time to talk about how they failed their marriage with humorous hindsight and resignation. And then they have sex for old time's sake because the attraction will still be there, although they have no clue what to do with it. That's my screenplay for the next one.
But Ingmar Bergman already covered similar ground with his superb and recommended 'Scenes from a Marriage'.
If it were up to me, I would have made this movie differently: The fight wouldn't have been so convincingly final. And they would recover from a vicious fight because they made us believe that they built a solid loving base with which to recover. That could have been just as deep, realistic and much more enjoyable.
This is the third in a trilogy which includes Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. I can't imagine this one being watched as a stand-alone movie and having anything near the effect it should. In fact, I would even recommend watching these several years apart. I watched these movies as they were released, and being the same age as this fictional but very realistic couple made it more of an involving experience.
The strongest aspects of this trilogy are the flowing endless dialogue, the acting, and the real characters. As opposed to many other opinions though, I sometimes felt that the dialogue in the last two movies became too pretentious and condensed to be real. These movies need more silence, pauses and looks.
In Before Sunrise, they were in their early 20s, smart and practical but open to experience an idealistic short romance based on their chance encounter. They connected, they were charming, they were real, and they pulled it off much to the delight of audiences.
In Before Sunset and nine years later, for the first half of the movie, they were unbearably self-obsessed and pretentious and talked at each other instead of with each other. They spent a few hours together, and gradually their attraction and chemistry came back, and made you believe that they may actually recover from their last few years of miserable relationships and closed-minded lifeless lives that were obviously bringing them down, as long as they got together and developed what they had. Some charm and romance crept in despite their newfound self-deprecating cynicism, leaving audiences with an open-ended ending full of potential. I hated it at first, then grew to like it better on second viewing.
In Before Midnight, in a too-realistic portrayal, they have been a couple for 9 years (with kids), but their personality differences have not been worked on and their marriage is on the rocks.
Jesse is a successful writer but his break with his previous wife and son in order to be with Celine is causing increasing strains in his current marriage. Little annoying things he does add to the strain, but what is very obvious in this movie is that she doesn't love him anymore so every little thing adds to the complaints.
Celine in this movie is like an amalgam of every neurosis in modern women. She is an angry activist, an angry feminist, an unfulfilled angry wife, a woman who is so lost and confused regarding what she wants, she cannot be satisfied no matter how many efforts he makes to clarify things and express his love for her, and she doesn't have the tools and outlook to fix her feelings for him so this is a Sisyphean task in any case. As three-dimensional as she is, this is not a sympathetic character to say the least.
*spoilers*
Which is why, at the end of the movie, anyone with a brain will realize that the small bone she throws him at the end is worthless and that this marriage is doomed. Which is why, as realistic as this movie is, it simply was not enjoyable. Not that movies need to be fun or romantic, but I do expect them to be rewarding or insightful in one way or another. I do not need to go to the movies to watch neurotic people flail at their last threads of marriage and fail at it miserably because of commonplace emotional incompetence.
If there is a next movie in a few years, the only possible outcome is that they got divorced soon after this night, and they get together one more time to talk about how they failed their marriage with humorous hindsight and resignation. And then they have sex for old time's sake because the attraction will still be there, although they have no clue what to do with it. That's my screenplay for the next one.
But Ingmar Bergman already covered similar ground with his superb and recommended 'Scenes from a Marriage'.
If it were up to me, I would have made this movie differently: The fight wouldn't have been so convincingly final. And they would recover from a vicious fight because they made us believe that they built a solid loving base with which to recover. That could have been just as deep, realistic and much more enjoyable.
Two Hours of Talk, Talk, Talk... and Absolutely Enthralling...
soncoman15 May 2013
The 56th San Francisco International came to a close at the magnificent Castro Theatre with a showing of Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight", the third in Linklater's series of "Before
" films. Preceded by "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset", the film continues the story of Jesse and Celine, now a middle-aged, two child couple on vacation in Greece. Things are not quite right between the two, and there is much to be said between them. So they talk. For two hours. And it is absolutely enthralling.
I have to admit that I haven't seen the first two films. I was aware of them, but they just never jumped out at me as something I had to see. I admire Linklater's work ( I thought last year's "Bernie" was one of the best films of the year) but just never had a reason to put seeing those films above others I had more interest in. I attended the screening mainly because it was the closing night film, but had concerns that not having seen the previous two would put me at a disadvantage in appreciating his latest. Festival friend (and "Before " series lover) Stacy McCarthy assured me the film stands on its own.
She was right. Nothing much goes on in this film but conversations between people, but these conversations are fascinating and have a sense of reality about them often missing from films of this nature. Credit for that obviously goes to director Linklater and actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who collaborated on the script. It doesn't hurt that the film was shot in Greece, but the picturesque beauty of that country comes second to the riveting portrayal of a couple at the stage of life where the often painful questioning of a couple's future begins.
Two hours with these characters flew by, and as the credits rolled my first thoughts were about how much I really liked the film, and how I need to think more "out of the box" when it comes to selecting films to view. I'm guilty of often limiting my scope, and I'm thankful that Film Festivals force me to widen my film horizons.
www.worstshowontheweb.com
I have to admit that I haven't seen the first two films. I was aware of them, but they just never jumped out at me as something I had to see. I admire Linklater's work ( I thought last year's "Bernie" was one of the best films of the year) but just never had a reason to put seeing those films above others I had more interest in. I attended the screening mainly because it was the closing night film, but had concerns that not having seen the previous two would put me at a disadvantage in appreciating his latest. Festival friend (and "Before " series lover) Stacy McCarthy assured me the film stands on its own.
She was right. Nothing much goes on in this film but conversations between people, but these conversations are fascinating and have a sense of reality about them often missing from films of this nature. Credit for that obviously goes to director Linklater and actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who collaborated on the script. It doesn't hurt that the film was shot in Greece, but the picturesque beauty of that country comes second to the riveting portrayal of a couple at the stage of life where the often painful questioning of a couple's future begins.
Two hours with these characters flew by, and as the credits rolled my first thoughts were about how much I really liked the film, and how I need to think more "out of the box" when it comes to selecting films to view. I'm guilty of often limiting my scope, and I'm thankful that Film Festivals force me to widen my film horizons.
www.worstshowontheweb.com
Before Midnight- A Logical and Equally Emotional Continuation of the Romantic Saga that is Uncomfortably Truthful and Painfully Heartfelt
generationfilm29 May 2013
Despite what idealized viewers might think when it comes to their beloved romance films there are numerous events and circumstances that can occur outside the frame that could strengthen, fracture, or challenge that particular relationship beyond the assumed happily ever after conclusion. This idea behind continued uncertainty is essentially called life and though the realist perspective might damage some optimist hopes there is a genuine beauty to the wonderful truth that is a relationship that cultivates or fissures in the face life's challenges. Eclectic filmmaker Richard Linklater, known for such diverse films such as his debut indie feature Slacker and his wide appeal comedy School of Rock, understood the idea of life beyond the ending credits once he reintroduced his two romantic leads Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) with a chance encounter in Before Sunset after their initial meeting nine years earlier in Before Sunrise. Before Midnight, the latest chapter of this ingenious film series, offers the creative staples that the romantic saga is known for with Linklater's consistently delicate observational style, Hawke and Delpy's engaged performances, philosophical witty banter relating to relationships, life, and more but this time unfolding the details of a relationship that has marinated beyond its initial romantic beginnings and changed into something far more palpable, strained, and relatable. The collaborative writing between Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy demonstrates their immense understanding of their created characters and deliver their most uncomfortably emotional and richly life-affirming vignette in this particular reflective road stop in the lives of Jesse and Celine. When poet John Keats wrote the famous last line "truth is beauty, beauty truth" in his poem "An Ode to a Grecian Urn" he realized that even the most unpleasant truths had intense beauty in its mere recognized existence and the Before saga is one of the purest cinematic exercises in revealing that kind of beautiful truth. Before Midnight takes the initially romantic setups in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset and expands them into their most logical and equally emotional prolongation where it expands the narrative strength, character vivacity, and philosophical importance of the series into a fully realized and painfully heartfelt whole that speaks uncomfortable truths in an engagingly entertaining way.
Read more: http://wp.me/py8op-yV; more reviews: generationfilm.net
Read more: http://wp.me/py8op-yV; more reviews: generationfilm.net
The mere idea that Jesse and Celine have days like "Before Midnight" everyday is more overwhelming than an epic drama.
Sergeant_Tibbs26 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
The first time I saw Before Sunrise and Before Sunset I didn't think much to them. I thought it was a cute concept to revisit characters, particularly with the irony that Jesse wrote about Before Sunrise but it wasn't until a rewatch when they opened up. I wish more films were two interesting people talking and walking through beautiful cities, especially if they can be as breezy and rewarding as Before Sunset. So now that I'm a fan, I was excited for Before Midnight and felt that it could tie the knot that the first two left loose. It did. Midnight is definitely the funniest and most hard-hitting film I've seen in a long while. In the other films I've found their existential conversations interesting but it's never felt like they've dug their fingers in my brain like this film. It feels like a mirror of my feelings. In a single shot they articulate all the transient anxieties I have about the world and life in a more profound way than I could've achieved in my lifetime. With its real-time gap in time between films with events and moments only left to the imagination of the viewer, that element of reality is fascinating. The mere idea that Jesse and Celine have days like Before Midnight everyday is more overwhelming than an epic drama. But beyond the fiction, there's a scene where Julie Deply is topless through a range of emotional tones which adds an extra strange element of reality that the other films don't have regarding the chemistry between the leads. As Ethan Hawke suckles on Julie Deply's nipple, the idea of an intimate relationship between Hawke and Deply in reality lifts the fiction of Jesse and Celine to a new realm of emotional impact, especially considering the sharpness of their argument scene. Midnight has one of the best endings I've seen and if it left it at the penultimate scene, I would've been far too wrecked. The humour is just so poignant and wonderful and true. On a technical level, the film is terrific considering their choices of where to set conversations and how they're executed in long shots. I loved the way the score for the film was adapted from Celine's "Waltz For A Night" song from the end of Sunset. As always, the acting is genuine and charming and while it struggles to adapt to the barrage of side characters at first, they do have something fascinating to say. Before Midnight is draining but thoroughly enlightening and satisfying. I have no hesitation in calling it the best of everyone's careers and best of the year unless anything else hits me harder. 9/10
Not charming anymore
Gordon-1113 September 2020
Before Midnight
mmaggiano18 July 2016
Before Midnight is the third of three movies, shot about a decade apart each, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as lovers with a very push-pull dynamic. It's not necessary to see the first two movies to follow Before Midnight. The movie features long takes (sometimes not cutting for 10 minutes at a time) the story takes place over a day, and dialogue and naturalistic acting are paramount. There's a complexity to their characters and relationship that refuses to fully romanticize or demonize them. It's something of a realist romance in (deliberate) contrast the beautiful settings. Careful viewers will notice a handful of ironies that ground the romance in reality. I won't give examples here, or go into the details that keep me from giving this a 9 or 10 as many critics do. The movie is the proverbial breath of fresh air, though. I'd say that the main weakness of the movie stems from its strengths, in that when artists set out to make something so true to human nature (as opposed to fluffier rom coms or Nicholas Sparks movies) it's easy to hear the (few) false notes that are played. There are very few; and unless you're jonesing for a mere-nonsense 'entertainment' movie, this movie should appeal to practically anyone.
Jesse and Celine?
pauricsha22 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I read an online review of Before Midnight where the reviewer made the case that in this third film of the "Before" trilogy, Celine had been reduced to a flat character. Behaving in ways that didn't square with the Celine we know from the first two films, and not to her credit. Believable thoughtful feminist Celine, for example, become stereotypical bitter feminist Celine. And that seems pretty right.
I would argue, though, that Before Midnight reduces Jesse and Celine both to flat characters; but only for the fight scene. I've seen each film in the trilogy only once, so I should be cautious in my judgment, but my first impression on seeing this one was that we do see the "real" Jesse and Celine for most of it—still chatting away, debating, poking fun at each other, and now, figuring out middle-aged family life together—but in the hotel, and certainly by the end of the fight, they've been transformed into a familiar, almost clichéd, dysfunctional couple.
Not that the real Jesse and Celine shouldn't deal with dysfunction, but if one thing has been established in their on-screen relationship, it's that they have always been able to talk to each other openly and for the most part, honestly. And perhaps more important, listen to each other. It's what makes their falling in love the day they meet believable. But in the hotel, they're simply not there.
I can believe Jesse would cheat on Celine and not tell her, but I can't believe that when confronted, he would ignore her question, and respond essentially by accusing her of questioning his commitment. It's familiar, it's understandable, and sadly, it's predictably male. But is it Jesse?
I can believe Celine would be bored, or seriously angry even, by Jesse's always having sex the same way, but would it take a fight for Celine to bring it up for the first time? Basically, in the hotel, this is not a communicating couple who love each other but are struggling through mutual feelings of resentment—this is a couple who may love each other, but have spent years bottling their resentment and then when the kids are gone, it explodes, and they're at each other's throats. Contemptuous, totally un-empathetic, and downright mean, both of them. It's like they haven't had a real conversation about their feelings in years. Jesse and Celine?
So why? That's why I'm bummed. Whatever the intention—undoubtedly honest and thoughtful— of the director and actors, I believe they took an extraordinary couple brought together by extraordinary, yet believable, circumstances—in their communication, at least, maybe even a healthy example to follow—and waited as long as possible before revealing them to be actually pretty ordinary after all, and not as special as we thought. And maybe not even to be inspired by. :-(
I would argue, though, that Before Midnight reduces Jesse and Celine both to flat characters; but only for the fight scene. I've seen each film in the trilogy only once, so I should be cautious in my judgment, but my first impression on seeing this one was that we do see the "real" Jesse and Celine for most of it—still chatting away, debating, poking fun at each other, and now, figuring out middle-aged family life together—but in the hotel, and certainly by the end of the fight, they've been transformed into a familiar, almost clichéd, dysfunctional couple.
Not that the real Jesse and Celine shouldn't deal with dysfunction, but if one thing has been established in their on-screen relationship, it's that they have always been able to talk to each other openly and for the most part, honestly. And perhaps more important, listen to each other. It's what makes their falling in love the day they meet believable. But in the hotel, they're simply not there.
I can believe Jesse would cheat on Celine and not tell her, but I can't believe that when confronted, he would ignore her question, and respond essentially by accusing her of questioning his commitment. It's familiar, it's understandable, and sadly, it's predictably male. But is it Jesse?
I can believe Celine would be bored, or seriously angry even, by Jesse's always having sex the same way, but would it take a fight for Celine to bring it up for the first time? Basically, in the hotel, this is not a communicating couple who love each other but are struggling through mutual feelings of resentment—this is a couple who may love each other, but have spent years bottling their resentment and then when the kids are gone, it explodes, and they're at each other's throats. Contemptuous, totally un-empathetic, and downright mean, both of them. It's like they haven't had a real conversation about their feelings in years. Jesse and Celine?
So why? That's why I'm bummed. Whatever the intention—undoubtedly honest and thoughtful— of the director and actors, I believe they took an extraordinary couple brought together by extraordinary, yet believable, circumstances—in their communication, at least, maybe even a healthy example to follow—and waited as long as possible before revealing them to be actually pretty ordinary after all, and not as special as we thought. And maybe not even to be inspired by. :-(
A test of their love
Arcturus198022 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
There is a moment in Before Sunset where Ethan Hawke's Jesse tells Julie Delpy's Celine that he wrote a fictional version of their story where they rendezvous in Vienna and end up not liking each other. It appealed to her sense of realism. Indeed, she later touched on it again. Walking out of the theater I knew Before Midnight more or less answered that vital question.
Here we add nine freaking years to the previous 13 or so hours of their time together. So, understandably, Jesse and Celine are not as we left them. Bearing the increasingly heavy chains of life's complications, they still love to bat around ideas and make each other laugh. More importantly, they really want to understand each other and be understood.
For Jesse, seeing little of his son Hank (now 13 and played by Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is the unacceptable cost of being with Celine, mishandling his separation, and having a vindictive, dejected ex-wife. Desperately wanting to be consistently present in Hank's life, their latest farewell is the final straw. He and Celine had been in regular contact with Hank for two years in New York City, but Celine's very complicated pregnancy with twins (Ella and Nina, now 7-years-old and played by Jennifer and Charlotte Prior respectively) made it imperative that she be close to her mother in Paris.
Jesse obviously did the right thing by staying with Celine and he knows it, yet he shoulders the guilt of an absentee father and externalizes it. Celine, though not exactly an innocent bystander, is subjected to unfair manipulation. Generally quite reasonable as to the father/son question, she is, by my reading, unconsciously passive-aggressive about it. The unarguable fact is that a move to Chicago (where Hank presently lives with his mother) would amount to babysitting every other weekend for want of joint custody. As for Hank, he gets on well with Jesse, but there is a definite sense of detachment. He doesn't even look over his shoulder as he turns the corner out of sight at the airport.
Jesse is otherwise very good: he is leading the life of a successful writer (three books out and a fourth in the works) with Celine--the unquestionable love of his life--as his wife and a good mother to their twin daughters who are healthy (and of course dressed differently). He just somehow figured on Hank living with them. By thinking through his crisis aloud, Celine (no longer a closed book) says in a half-kidding way that it is the beginning of the end for them.
It is nice to see them interacting socially for the first time in the marvelous, detail-rich dinner scene. Everyone contributes more or less evenly as the conversation ranges from artificial intelligence to gender differences to various interesting perspectives on love and romance. The trio of Linklater, Hawke and Delpy pour themselves into making the absolute most of these naturalistic films, and it shines through palpably. It is interesting to learn that Hawke and Delpy wrote a lot of each other's dialogue. This happens to be the funniest of the three films, in my opinion. Great music again, too!
Celine, feeling disconnected from Jesse as to her own stresses, wants out of their planned night together, but irrevocable arrangements had been made on their behalf. Walking together as we had come to know them, their natural chemistry is evident in short order. Celine acknowledges this while remarking in a downplayed way that she doesn't feel the connection at times. Jesse responds in jest, unaware of it as a crisis that will soon converge with his own. They enter their hotel room feeling good about the whole shebang. Then Hank calls again and things gradually spiral downward into a serious case of love on the rocks for these well-meaning veritable soulmates in the southern Peloponnese of Greece.
Celine is more complicated than Jesse--who is not about to leave her and the girls for Hank in Chicago--and even less inclined to contentment in life. The professionally-minded activist with little in the way of a maternal instinct has been saddled with the aforementioned twins and is essentially trying to balance domestic mundanities with her environmental work in the ineffectual non-profit sector. She no longer finds time for music, her creative outlet. By contrast, Jesse to her mind takes his easygoing novelist life to the highfaluting hilt. Though wonderfully good-natured to be sure, envy continues to be a problem of hers. She respects his intelligence, but slights his work, and being the inspiration for his first two intimate novels does not sit well with her at all. She also feels every day of her 41 years and even accuses him of infidelity, as if only to clear the air.
The backfiring of a wind turbine project has her set on working for the government again despite doubts. Not knowing she considers it a "dream job" of sorts, Jesse rouses Celine's feminist spirit by suggesting she perhaps forgo the position for something in Chicago. Celine quotes someone in earnest: "Women explore for eternity in the vast garden of sacrifice." It took Jesse's out and out mockery of her innermost feminism to later warrant her saying she doesn't think she loves him anymore.
In the final scene we find Celine understandably despondent and Jesse appropriately self-reproachful. Employing a time travel fantasy reminiscent of that which convinced her to see Vienna with him 18 years before, he realizes his failure despite desirous efforts to understand her. By reconciling herself to him, Celine sees in his sincerity the very magic she spoke of in Vienna. It could not come full circle more wonderfully.
Their protracted relationship continues to be the very height of my cinematic experience, so it pleases me greatly to know that the door is being left wide open for a fourth film and hopefully more. Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke will know if it is right.
Here we add nine freaking years to the previous 13 or so hours of their time together. So, understandably, Jesse and Celine are not as we left them. Bearing the increasingly heavy chains of life's complications, they still love to bat around ideas and make each other laugh. More importantly, they really want to understand each other and be understood.
For Jesse, seeing little of his son Hank (now 13 and played by Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is the unacceptable cost of being with Celine, mishandling his separation, and having a vindictive, dejected ex-wife. Desperately wanting to be consistently present in Hank's life, their latest farewell is the final straw. He and Celine had been in regular contact with Hank for two years in New York City, but Celine's very complicated pregnancy with twins (Ella and Nina, now 7-years-old and played by Jennifer and Charlotte Prior respectively) made it imperative that she be close to her mother in Paris.
Jesse obviously did the right thing by staying with Celine and he knows it, yet he shoulders the guilt of an absentee father and externalizes it. Celine, though not exactly an innocent bystander, is subjected to unfair manipulation. Generally quite reasonable as to the father/son question, she is, by my reading, unconsciously passive-aggressive about it. The unarguable fact is that a move to Chicago (where Hank presently lives with his mother) would amount to babysitting every other weekend for want of joint custody. As for Hank, he gets on well with Jesse, but there is a definite sense of detachment. He doesn't even look over his shoulder as he turns the corner out of sight at the airport.
Jesse is otherwise very good: he is leading the life of a successful writer (three books out and a fourth in the works) with Celine--the unquestionable love of his life--as his wife and a good mother to their twin daughters who are healthy (and of course dressed differently). He just somehow figured on Hank living with them. By thinking through his crisis aloud, Celine (no longer a closed book) says in a half-kidding way that it is the beginning of the end for them.
It is nice to see them interacting socially for the first time in the marvelous, detail-rich dinner scene. Everyone contributes more or less evenly as the conversation ranges from artificial intelligence to gender differences to various interesting perspectives on love and romance. The trio of Linklater, Hawke and Delpy pour themselves into making the absolute most of these naturalistic films, and it shines through palpably. It is interesting to learn that Hawke and Delpy wrote a lot of each other's dialogue. This happens to be the funniest of the three films, in my opinion. Great music again, too!
Celine, feeling disconnected from Jesse as to her own stresses, wants out of their planned night together, but irrevocable arrangements had been made on their behalf. Walking together as we had come to know them, their natural chemistry is evident in short order. Celine acknowledges this while remarking in a downplayed way that she doesn't feel the connection at times. Jesse responds in jest, unaware of it as a crisis that will soon converge with his own. They enter their hotel room feeling good about the whole shebang. Then Hank calls again and things gradually spiral downward into a serious case of love on the rocks for these well-meaning veritable soulmates in the southern Peloponnese of Greece.
Celine is more complicated than Jesse--who is not about to leave her and the girls for Hank in Chicago--and even less inclined to contentment in life. The professionally-minded activist with little in the way of a maternal instinct has been saddled with the aforementioned twins and is essentially trying to balance domestic mundanities with her environmental work in the ineffectual non-profit sector. She no longer finds time for music, her creative outlet. By contrast, Jesse to her mind takes his easygoing novelist life to the highfaluting hilt. Though wonderfully good-natured to be sure, envy continues to be a problem of hers. She respects his intelligence, but slights his work, and being the inspiration for his first two intimate novels does not sit well with her at all. She also feels every day of her 41 years and even accuses him of infidelity, as if only to clear the air.
The backfiring of a wind turbine project has her set on working for the government again despite doubts. Not knowing she considers it a "dream job" of sorts, Jesse rouses Celine's feminist spirit by suggesting she perhaps forgo the position for something in Chicago. Celine quotes someone in earnest: "Women explore for eternity in the vast garden of sacrifice." It took Jesse's out and out mockery of her innermost feminism to later warrant her saying she doesn't think she loves him anymore.
In the final scene we find Celine understandably despondent and Jesse appropriately self-reproachful. Employing a time travel fantasy reminiscent of that which convinced her to see Vienna with him 18 years before, he realizes his failure despite desirous efforts to understand her. By reconciling herself to him, Celine sees in his sincerity the very magic she spoke of in Vienna. It could not come full circle more wonderfully.
Their protracted relationship continues to be the very height of my cinematic experience, so it pleases me greatly to know that the door is being left wide open for a fourth film and hopefully more. Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke will know if it is right.
IF You Don't Absolutely Adore This Movie I'm OK With That
ezr206125 May 2013
I could've easily given this film 4 stars, I am that disappointed with it. But some of the acting, and some of the direction and editing, and the cinematography is good enough to raise it to 6 stars. My main overarching complaint with this film, and the two which preceded it, is that I just wasn't impressed with or even entertained by the dialog. Some of it is insightful and clever and relevant but it just seems to keep repeating in different words, in different modes, the same sentiment. So when the chatter - the endless, circuitous chatter that isn't one half as clever as it likes to think it is - finally subsides we are left with two very attractive, semi intelligent narcissists marveling at the tedium of their lives. I was initially fascinated by the intensity of their irksome self interest, but I soon tired of this. Delpy is breathtakingly gorgeous and a supremely talented actress and Ethan Hawke is likewise attractive and a genuinely compelling thespian, but the self fascinated, often tedious discourse was just too calculated, contrived and manipulative for no other reason than to impress me with its audacious theatricality. I was craving a genuine, mundane, real moment that wasn't so emphatically genuine, mundane, and real.
The repeated times I audibly uttered such words as "Oh c'mon!" and "Really?!" and "A-Doy!" make me think I may possibly benefit from a few sessions with a gifted relationship therapist because every utterance of desire and disillusionment in this talk junkie's dream had me contemptuous of the very idea of anyone ever again attempting to pair up. I know this opinion is the opposite of popular but I must be candid and frank and honest with you good readers. In short - not for me.
The repeated times I audibly uttered such words as "Oh c'mon!" and "Really?!" and "A-Doy!" make me think I may possibly benefit from a few sessions with a gifted relationship therapist because every utterance of desire and disillusionment in this talk junkie's dream had me contemptuous of the very idea of anyone ever again attempting to pair up. I know this opinion is the opposite of popular but I must be candid and frank and honest with you good readers. In short - not for me.
This trilogy changed my cinematic perspective.
Mcnabbbeasty2 July 2021
I never would of thought 5 hours of talking could make for such an enthralling cinematic experience. The screenplay's evolution is nothing short of remarkable, the way you get drawn into all the little details and idiosyncrasies of the character's worlds and life perspectives throughout the 3 movies make for almost a surreal and unimaginable experience while watching film. The dialogue between Jesse and Celine was so intellectually rich and thought provoking it has me existentially introspecting on my own life and journey. The connection was just so well nuanced and real life like my eyes were plastered to the screen like I was watching the most captivating thriller ever made. I am 23 years old and I plan on re-watching this trilogy every 10 years of my life to see how my thinking and perspective evolves as Jesse and Celine's did.
A primer on what does not work in a relationship
howard.schumann16 June 2013
Feelings of regret, remorse, and guilt dominate Before Midnight, the third film in Richard Linklater's "Before" trilogy. The film takes place in Paris eighteen years after Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a then young American aspiring writer first meets Celine (Julie Delpy), a French graduate student on her way to Paris from Vienna. In Before Midnight, now approaching middle age, Jesse and Celine are a couple living in Paris and have settled into what appears to be a long-term relationship. Though not married, they have twin daughters, Ella and Nina (Jennifer and Charlotte Prior). As the film opens, Jesse is saying goodbye at the airport to his son Hank (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), who is returning home to Chicago where he lives with his mother, Jesse's ex-wife.
At the airport, Hank tells his dad that it was the best summer of his life which only makes their parting more difficult. Jesse wants to be closer to Hank but his ex-wife will not permit it and he discusses with Celine the possibility of her giving up her job as an environmental advocate and moving to Chicago, a topic that carries with it a great deal of baggage and is a bone of contention during the course of the film. As in the first two films, the third consists mostly of extended rapid-fire conversations between Jesse and Celine as well as with Jesse's literary friends with whom they are spending six weeks at a writer's workshop in Greece.
At an outdoor luncheon at 85-year-old Patrick's (Walter Lassally) villa, talk centers on a wide range of subjects such as whether books are still viable in the modern age of computers, how different age groups relate to love and romance, and other relevant topics that sound "deep." To make sure we know that the film is "edgy," Linklater sprinkles the dialogue with cutesy references to sex, orgasm, and genitalia that feels as if one has wandered into a high school cafeteria rather than a gathering of artists and intellectuals. As Jesse and Celine walk back to the luxury hotel that their friends have given them as a gift for the night, tension surfaces and they begin to tease each other and question each other's commitment.
When they arrive at the hotel, the good feelings of the afternoon have dissipated into bickering about who is at fault for everything that is wrong with their lives. Dangerously close to gender stereotyping, Jesse is depicted as the strong and calm one while Celine is shown as borderline hysterical. Talking at each other rather than to each other, Jesse again tells Celine about his regret at not being closer to his son and thinks about how he could fix the problem, but never acknowledges that it was his choice to leave his family. Celine shouts about how he abandoned her when the girls were born and calls him passive-aggressive to which Jesse responds by telling her she is "a crazy woman." After Celine complains about how her creativity has been stifled because of the lack of time she has to do anything other than to be a housewife, the quarreling deteriorates into a tug of war to the point where Celine walks out of the room.
Before Midnight restates the conventional wisdom about the spark in relationships inevitably fading with the years but the result feels more like an artistic concept than an organic experience with the characters having sacrificed their reality to the formula. Some critics have said that the no-holds-barred outbursts in the film are examples of adult behavior and are "proof that the couple has finally achieved a true intimacy."
To me, however,though well-done and engaging, Before Midnight is a primer on what does not work in a relationship. A relationship should not be a power struggle but a partnership based on mutual support in which the partners truly listen to each other without always having to be right. Contrary to the film's message, love does not have to die in order to be reborn, but can be created newly each day. That does not mean that all problems magically disappear, but only that you are willing to include any condition or any circumstance of the relationship as part of your experience of love. Here's looking at the next sunrise.
At the airport, Hank tells his dad that it was the best summer of his life which only makes their parting more difficult. Jesse wants to be closer to Hank but his ex-wife will not permit it and he discusses with Celine the possibility of her giving up her job as an environmental advocate and moving to Chicago, a topic that carries with it a great deal of baggage and is a bone of contention during the course of the film. As in the first two films, the third consists mostly of extended rapid-fire conversations between Jesse and Celine as well as with Jesse's literary friends with whom they are spending six weeks at a writer's workshop in Greece.
At an outdoor luncheon at 85-year-old Patrick's (Walter Lassally) villa, talk centers on a wide range of subjects such as whether books are still viable in the modern age of computers, how different age groups relate to love and romance, and other relevant topics that sound "deep." To make sure we know that the film is "edgy," Linklater sprinkles the dialogue with cutesy references to sex, orgasm, and genitalia that feels as if one has wandered into a high school cafeteria rather than a gathering of artists and intellectuals. As Jesse and Celine walk back to the luxury hotel that their friends have given them as a gift for the night, tension surfaces and they begin to tease each other and question each other's commitment.
When they arrive at the hotel, the good feelings of the afternoon have dissipated into bickering about who is at fault for everything that is wrong with their lives. Dangerously close to gender stereotyping, Jesse is depicted as the strong and calm one while Celine is shown as borderline hysterical. Talking at each other rather than to each other, Jesse again tells Celine about his regret at not being closer to his son and thinks about how he could fix the problem, but never acknowledges that it was his choice to leave his family. Celine shouts about how he abandoned her when the girls were born and calls him passive-aggressive to which Jesse responds by telling her she is "a crazy woman." After Celine complains about how her creativity has been stifled because of the lack of time she has to do anything other than to be a housewife, the quarreling deteriorates into a tug of war to the point where Celine walks out of the room.
Before Midnight restates the conventional wisdom about the spark in relationships inevitably fading with the years but the result feels more like an artistic concept than an organic experience with the characters having sacrificed their reality to the formula. Some critics have said that the no-holds-barred outbursts in the film are examples of adult behavior and are "proof that the couple has finally achieved a true intimacy."
To me, however,though well-done and engaging, Before Midnight is a primer on what does not work in a relationship. A relationship should not be a power struggle but a partnership based on mutual support in which the partners truly listen to each other without always having to be right. Contrary to the film's message, love does not have to die in order to be reborn, but can be created newly each day. That does not mean that all problems magically disappear, but only that you are willing to include any condition or any circumstance of the relationship as part of your experience of love. Here's looking at the next sunrise.
Liked It the Least of the Three
larrys325 October 2013
I liked the first two films of these interconnected movies "Before Sunrise"(1995) and "Before Sunset"(2004). I've always liked Ethan Hawke's acting and I thought the scripts were full of life and fresh dialog. I felt that way for maybe 1/2 of this latest film and then, for me, it just deteriorated into one long argument between the two protagonists, often accompanied by vicious barbs and personal verbal attacks. I thought for a moment I was back watching "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", from decades before.
It was not entertaining for me to watch Jesse(Hawke) and Celine(Julie Delpy) try to win this argument by throwing out all the stereotypes, generalizations, and platitudes that you might find in "Men Are From Mars-Women Are From Venus". They've been together now for many years, and the parents of twin girls Ella and Nina. Jesse is divorced and his son Henry is just leaving Jesse to head back to the States where he lives with his mother. They've all been vacationing in beautiful Greece for the summer.
As mentioned, why ruin all the positives of the first two films and half of this one with all this mean spiritedness?
It was not entertaining for me to watch Jesse(Hawke) and Celine(Julie Delpy) try to win this argument by throwing out all the stereotypes, generalizations, and platitudes that you might find in "Men Are From Mars-Women Are From Venus". They've been together now for many years, and the parents of twin girls Ella and Nina. Jesse is divorced and his son Henry is just leaving Jesse to head back to the States where he lives with his mother. They've all been vacationing in beautiful Greece for the summer.
As mentioned, why ruin all the positives of the first two films and half of this one with all this mean spiritedness?
Should this couple be together?
bettycjung11 June 2018
6/6/18. I heard so much about this Hawke-Delphy franchise and finally got a chance to watch this one. While it is considered a drama/romance, it is hardly that. It is a 109-minute, non-stop talkfest. Do you know any couple who can talk this much in that amount of time? Here are two people who spend their time together trying to rationalize the reason why they should stay together, then diverge on issues of commitment, self-fulfillment, dishonesty and infidelity (but is it really, when they are not married?). After all that talk, you really have to wonder if they even belong together. Kind of being forced to watch a relationship disintegrating before your eyes and not being able to tell them to just shut up and think about what they are saying.
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