Believable and captivating

Rating: 9/10 (29 August 2006)

Admittedly I'm not a big sucker for romantic movies. However, as I recently became familiar with the works of Linklater through the mesmerizing rotoscope-animations of "Waking Life" and the film adaption of Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly", the first in which the main-characters of this piece appear, I decided to give "Before Sunrise" a shot.
First and most importantly should be said, that this movie effortlessly manages to dodge every cliché-filled pitfall of your typical, superficial Hollywood-love-fest. As with most of Linklater's work, this movie is extremely driven by it's dialogue, here to the point where you, on few occasions, almost find it to much. Fortunately, Linklater has a rare ability to write characters and dialogue with an unusual feel of honesty and depth, which is really what keeps this movie as captivating as it is.
And this is where "Before Sunrise" truly separates itself from all it's pretentious, dreamworld love-flick-imitators. Because, as the common love-flick tends to focus on a ridiculous plot, a highly unrealistic yet still very predictable storyline, all usually disguised well in silly humor and poor acting, which never really seems to try and connect with it's viewer on anything but a hollow, dream-world level. "Before Sunset" steers clear of all that, by simply telling a story of two people connecting, and delivered in a way that enables most viewers to reflect their own experiences in the story. Granted, the romance unfolding in this picture is of the rare kind, but every piece of it is believable and never attempts to be more than it is.
Combined with some fine and credible performances by the two main characters and a director who almost constantly manages to balance the story and the atmosphere just right, so it never ever gets mushy or uninteresting, this is definitely one romance-movie that is worth the watch. It is not packed with big allusive incidents, nor does it pretend to preach any real deeper meanings, but it does provide a compelling story of two people connecting, and does so in a way that most people will be able to relate to on an emotional level, and be able to appreciate on an intellectual one for the very well-written story, dialogue and directing.
Hopefully the sequel which is next on the list will be as rewarding.