|
All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Before Sunset
|
 out of 4
| *Also starring: | Vernon Dobtcheff, Diabolo, Albert Delpy, Mariane Plasteig, Marie Pillet, Rodolphe Pauly |
|
Review by Harvey Karten
2½ stars out of 4
|
Have you ever been on a double date only to discover you're
more interested in the couple you're with than in your own friend
for the evening? Watching "Before Sunset" is like being on
such an event, a talky, 80-minute chat essentially between two
people in real time. The chat had better be more interesting
because the film depends strictly on the chemistry between
Julie Delpy in the role of Celine and Ethan Hawke performing as
Jesse. Consider this as good an example as any other of a
sequel. "Before Sunrise," also directed by Richard Linklater,
introduced us in 1995 to a young American who strikes up a
conversation with a fellow train passenger and persuades her to
get off in Vienna and share his last night in Europe. In that pic,
they spend the entire night talking and falling in love. This time
around, they meet serendipitously in Paris and whether they
spend the night is likely, though not shown. Instead Linklater,
using a script he co-wrote with the two stars, affords us a double
date during the day time with Celine and Jesse, who meet at a
Shakespeare and Company bookstore reading by Jesse–who
has just written a best-seller inspired by his night in ‘95 and is on
a whirlwind trip of ten European cities in twelve days.
If the film reminds you of Louis Malle's fascinating "My
Dinner With Andre" (1981), you're a solid film buff. Malle's film
takes place in a restaurant wherein playwright-actor Wallace
Shawn has dinner with his old friend and theater director, Andre
Gregory. They talk about their philosophies for a couple of
hours. "Before Sunset" has at least as much talk but only about
what is commonly and incorrectly called "my philosophy" and
"your philosophy" and yet is devoid of any references to
Heidegger, Spinoza or Kant. Celine and Jesse discuss their own
night together in Vienna, using their connection as a jumping-off
point for a collegiate bull session about relationships.
As they leave the book shop to go for coffee (with Jesse's
naively American "let's get a cup of coffee"), later to walk about
the area surrounding Notre Dame Cathedral and the Seine and
ultimately tp drive to Celine's charming courtyard apartment, we
get to see why Paris is called the world's most romantic city. In
such an atmosphere their conversation revolves easily around
what they'd been doing since they last met–she, an idealist,
worked for an environmental group while he devoted his time to
writing fiction. Celine has been through a number of failed
relationships, wary about starting new ones because she'd been
hurt. Nothing new there, though one wonders at first who'd ever
dump someone as attractive and smart as she–until she reveals
her neuroses. Jesse is married, has a boy named Henry to
whom he is dedicated, but is disappointed that the romance with
his wife is gone. "We've had sex four times in the last ten
years," he states.
Among the revelations is that while Jesse and Celine had
planned to meet again in Vienna six months from their first night
together, he showed up but she did not. Neither had exchanged
phone numbers for some presumably romantic reason (they did
not want to have an "ordinary" relationship), with the strange
result that while she was studying at NYU and he was living in
New York during that time, they had not gotten together.
The film was shot in 15 days on a tight budget with dialogue
that seems at times improvised. Delpy's a doll but speaks with a
clipped accent, but to her credit she is as fluent in English as
she is in French. There's something irritating about Hawke,
something pinched. He's obviously crazy about this woman and
plays around verbally such as when he states that he did not go
to Vienna but, after a moment, admits that he was there and she
was not. Yet despite his chemistry with Delpy he seems
awkward, pinched.
Kirk Honeycut of The Hollywood Reporter calls the movie
"hugely enjoyable..one of the most wildly romantic movies in
ages" which could mean that he fell in love with Ms. Delpy (or
Mr. Hawke). I think that if I "doubled" with the couple, I'd be
fascinated at first with the woman but given the neuroses her
character displays during her seventy-five minutes of screen
time (at one point she almost bolted from the car), I'd probably
pay more attention to my own date after all.
Copyright © 2004 Harvey Karten
| |
|
|
Buy movie posters!
|
