Classic Movie Review : Before Sunset (2004)
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Richard Linklater’s movie Before Sunrise is a contemporary classic. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s dreamy, idealistic and emblematic of an entire generation. Generation X prioritized meaningful relationships over duties and social hierarchies and Linklater gave them a movie about how great and empowering it felt to romantically connect with another human being. It’s too close to a literary major college dorm sex fantasy for my own taste, but it’s fine. I agree it’s (kind of) important.
Before Sunrise did not need a sequel. It could exist on its own. But it does have a sequel called Before Sunset and it’s weird and morally bankrupt.
Set nine years after Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) met in Vienna, Before Sunset picks up at the end of Jesse’s book tour, in Paris. What happened in Before Sunrise left such a mark on him, he wrote a freakin’ best selling novel about it. Céline showed up unannounced at his Q&A to rekindle the flame from the most intense moment of their lives. Although Jesse has eighty minute until his flight, they race down memory lane together to make up for lost time.
Wait a minute?
That’s right. At the end of Before Sunrise, Jesse and Céline promise to see each other again in six months and only one of them showed up. They went their separate ways and built lives for themselves. Jesse is married and has a four years old kid. Céline has a war photographer boyfriend. Anyone who ever had a meaningful relationship in their lives know it’s a terrible fucking idea for them to meet again. Both professionally (at least for Jesse) and romantically.
See, that’s where Richard Linklater’s brilliant idea of filming eighty straight minutes of pure human connection goes to shit. Jesse and Céline don’t really know each other. Apparently, there weren’t even important enough to one another to warrant a Google search. They didn’t know each other’s family name, but they spent an entire night revealing intimate details about themselves. How hard could it have been? But Jesse and Céline never looked for each other.
My take on it is that they didn’t really want to find each other. The memory of the night they spent together was the image of perfect romanced crystalized in their mind. What happens in Before Sunset is not romantic. Jesse and Céline think the past will magically deliver them from a present they deem mediocre even if they’re both professionally and romantically successful. They don’t give a shit about anything but that one memory. That makes them assholes.
In Before Sunrise, they connect by showing trust and emotional honesty to a complete stranger. That’s how you connect to another human being. They didn’t need each other. They’ve taught each other a precious life skill that nine years of misplaced nostalgia seems to have deleted from their minds. That night in Vienna shouldn’t have been the missing piece for them. It should’ve been the piece that made them emotionally smarter and sturdier.
It would’ve made a better movie.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy telling each other how much they hate their successful and fulfilling lives in a car ride to the airport.
Get on that fucking plane, Jesse
The big artistic statement of Before Sunset is that it’s more or less filmed in real time between the end of Jesse’s book store Q&A and the time he’s supposed to catch his flight. I don’t know if you’ve ever had to catch a flight but that shit’s supposed to be on your mind. After all, Jesse’s a husband and the father to a four years old kid, which seems to be kind of a big fucking hinderance to him throughout the movie. He is not in the least eager to see him.
How am I supposed to like that fucking guy? He wants to skip on his own son in order to get laid with a girl he once had sex with in a park, while he was in college. I kept thinking about that during my viewing of Before Sunset. Jesse is not a fucking dreamy-eyed rebel anymore. He’s a fucking deadbeat looking to feel like he once did in 1995. Facebook is full of 50 years old Jesses in 2021. Maybe the movie just aged wrong, but it’s straight up hard to appreciate.
That’s my main problem with the movie. Jesse and Céline don’t have a reason to do it again. In fact, they have reasons to stay away from each other and embrace the fulfilling lives they’ve built for themselves. Normal people just have a coffee with one another, share uncomfortable looks, exchange emails and go their merry way. Before Sunset had no premise for romance, but tried to shove it down our throat anyway, making its character come off like entitled jerks.
*
Before Sunset is almost as revered as its predecessor. The only difference is that it doesn’t really have a reason to exist. People are not “meant” for each other . People fall in love, get into relationships and work hard to keep them healthy and ongoing. Unless you’re an asshole who can’t live in the moment like Jesse. I get what Richard Linklater was going for, but he would’ve achieved a more pleasant experience by shoving a Rubik’s cube in my butthole.
Don’t give a man a family and professional success only to make me think that throwing it all away is the fucking romantic thing to do. This is self-sabotaging behavior. The moment is nice and Jesse desperately wants to live in it, but Céline is not the moment. She is the fucking past and you’re not recuperating the same person you left in 1995. Get on that fucking plane, Jesse. You’re not romantic anymore. You’re a philandering deadbeat walking out on his son.
5.1/10
