truly one of a kind

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2013)

I have a hard time explaining Before Sunrise or even categorizing it. It is hard to call it a "romantic comedy" because it is so different from the other movies we have come to know as romantic comedies. It is hard to call it a drama with a little touch of romance because it makes the movie sound too depressing. I believe this is a pure romantic movie.
I would hate to alienate men by calling this a romantic movie. I believe it's a romantic movie that everybody should see, especially teenagers. I was a bit surprised to see, on IMDb, that the movie is R rated, since the movie struck me as being very innocent.
The movie follows the story of Jesse and Celine (the only characters with a name in the movie) who meet on a train and abruptly decide to spend the rest of the day (and night) walking together. It would be an understatement to say that these characters connected quickly (since the movie would have ended very fast if they hadn't), but what's surprising is that how Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawk make it look so real and convincing. There is no hint of the underlining factor that they are just acting. Hawk does all of his scenes effortlessly but Delpy is something else. She makes you fall in love with her character's mannerisms, gestures and accent from the onset but what is even more impressive is how irresistibly gorgeous she actually is. I like paying close attention to the technical stuff in movies, like camera movement, color composition, sound and so on, but this is all so hard to do with Deply around.
The movie is of course co-written and directed by Richard Linklater. He was introduced to the film world with his brilliant independent film, Slacker. After the release of Slacker, he had become the equivalent of a superstar in the indie film world and this was his chance to show that he wasn't just a guy that got lucky the first time around. It is obvious that he pulled out this movie, with his co-writer, out of his personal experiences. I am saying this because the movie would have never been pulled off by just great writers but by great writers who know about human being's innate personal emotions.
Anyway, this is a truly remarkable movie and an even better romantic film (not inflicted by Hollywood's cheesy imprinting's of course).