They'll Always Have Vienna
Although it is as unnecessary a sequel as it is unlikely, it is hard not to admire the ambition of director Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, while lamenting the movie's utter tedium.
A follow-up to 1995's Before Sunrise, the sequel picks up 9 years later with Jesse (Ethan Hawke) finishing up a book tour in Paris for a novel he wrote based on the 14-hour affair he had with Celine (Julie Delpy) in Vienna. The lovers had promised to meet 6 months later, but, obviously didn't. Celine surprises Jesse at his book signing and the two have just 80 minutes—the length of the movie—to catch up and rekindle their aborted romance before Jesse heads off to the airport and home to his wife and family.
Linklater's verite conceit—following the reunited couple in real time—is intriguing, but ultimately fails for one reason. Neither Jesse nor Celine are very compelling characters, and they play the reunion like an overlong, unedited version of one of the various dating shows that litter the airwaves. The conventionality of the two characters, who both lead rather dull lives filled with unrewarding romances, various jobs and a longing for the past, is part of Linklater and co-writers/co-stars Hawke and Delpy's design. While the first movie was romantic featuring younger, more idealistic versions of the characters, the sequel wants to capture life as it is in naturalistic, documentary terms.
Sadly, that's not why we go to the movies—particularly one whose subject matter is romance. What we want is a bit of idealism, a touch of fantasy, playfulness, eroticism. What we get here are two rather nice, albeit ordinary people prattling on about everything under the sun from sex to religion to, yes, environmentalism. And it's about as exciting as a conversation you'd overhear in a supermarket checkout line. A movie catching up with a great cinematic couple, say Casablanca's Rick and Elsa, could be riveting because they are interesting, romantic characters. Jesse and Celine are just uninteresting neurotics.
The movie, though, has its moments. The opening scene in the bookstore is rather amusing in spots, and the end sequence at Delpy's apartment is pleasant as well with the actress singing one of her songs (she's set to release a CD in the U.S. in the near future) in her lovely, if thin voice.
Other than these bookend scenes, there's little to recommend Before Sunset. There are no new truths discussed, nothing much happens, and the end is as unresolved as the first movie. What is interesting, however, is that there is an underlying romanticism trying to get out, particularly in Hawke's Jesse. He might be dull, but he has a stunted romantic spirit that could be nurtured. Delpy is an obviously beautiful, romantic heroine-type, but she's so neurotic and damaged that it's almost painful to watch her, except at the end when she's imitating a concert performance of the legendary Nina Simone.
It's too bad that the movie went so wrong, because, with the right kind of romantic touches and flourishes it could have been exactly what it hoped to be—a brainy, romantic alternative to the loud, brainless junk that is populating the multiplexes across the country.
A follow-up to 1995's Before Sunrise, the sequel picks up 9 years later with Jesse (Ethan Hawke) finishing up a book tour in Paris for a novel he wrote based on the 14-hour affair he had with Celine (Julie Delpy) in Vienna. The lovers had promised to meet 6 months later, but, obviously didn't. Celine surprises Jesse at his book signing and the two have just 80 minutes—the length of the movie—to catch up and rekindle their aborted romance before Jesse heads off to the airport and home to his wife and family.
Linklater's verite conceit—following the reunited couple in real time—is intriguing, but ultimately fails for one reason. Neither Jesse nor Celine are very compelling characters, and they play the reunion like an overlong, unedited version of one of the various dating shows that litter the airwaves. The conventionality of the two characters, who both lead rather dull lives filled with unrewarding romances, various jobs and a longing for the past, is part of Linklater and co-writers/co-stars Hawke and Delpy's design. While the first movie was romantic featuring younger, more idealistic versions of the characters, the sequel wants to capture life as it is in naturalistic, documentary terms.
Sadly, that's not why we go to the movies—particularly one whose subject matter is romance. What we want is a bit of idealism, a touch of fantasy, playfulness, eroticism. What we get here are two rather nice, albeit ordinary people prattling on about everything under the sun from sex to religion to, yes, environmentalism. And it's about as exciting as a conversation you'd overhear in a supermarket checkout line. A movie catching up with a great cinematic couple, say Casablanca's Rick and Elsa, could be riveting because they are interesting, romantic characters. Jesse and Celine are just uninteresting neurotics.
The movie, though, has its moments. The opening scene in the bookstore is rather amusing in spots, and the end sequence at Delpy's apartment is pleasant as well with the actress singing one of her songs (she's set to release a CD in the U.S. in the near future) in her lovely, if thin voice.
Other than these bookend scenes, there's little to recommend Before Sunset. There are no new truths discussed, nothing much happens, and the end is as unresolved as the first movie. What is interesting, however, is that there is an underlying romanticism trying to get out, particularly in Hawke's Jesse. He might be dull, but he has a stunted romantic spirit that could be nurtured. Delpy is an obviously beautiful, romantic heroine-type, but she's so neurotic and damaged that it's almost painful to watch her, except at the end when she's imitating a concert performance of the legendary Nina Simone.
It's too bad that the movie went so wrong, because, with the right kind of romantic touches and flourishes it could have been exactly what it hoped to be—a brainy, romantic alternative to the loud, brainless junk that is populating the multiplexes across the country.
