There's nothing to it, yet there is so much

Rating: 8/10 (4 October 2014)

Here is cinema in its most simplified and most raw form. Before Sunrise is what you get when you strip away all of the flash, all the flare, and all the cluttering visual elements of a story and instead simply turn on the camera and allow two actors to be together and tell a story completely driven by poignant dialogue. Before Sunrise stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Celine, respectively. Jesse, an American traveling Europe for his own vague reasons, meets Celine, a French girl, on a train on the way to Vienna. The two immediately strike up conversation and wind up taking a spontaneous trip through Vienna together, where they slowly fall in love, despite their inevitable split the next day when they both must return to their respective home countries. It's a beautifully told tale of blossoming love, while tragedy looms in the background.
Richard Linklater loves telling stories in unconventionally unique ways, and Before Sunrise is one of his earliest and most successful attempts at unique storytelling. Of course, the film's uniqueness stems from its simplicity. I feel like if you go into this movie expecting any more than talking you are doomed to hate it. But, if you go into it expecting rich dialogue and textured characters contemplating life, love, and the universe, you are bound to really enjoy this film.
There really isn't a whole lot to say about this lovely little film, because all of its charm and beauty stems from its simplicity. There is so little to this movie, and yet so much to enjoy as you fall in love with these characters, subsequently just falling in love with the whole idea of love, because Hawke and Delpy make it look like such a naturally magnificent thing. You have here a film that essentially goes nowhere (it all does take place in one city in one night), yet takes you on such a journey into the psyche and the dynamics of these two fascinating characters who, along the way, meet a whole cast of other interesting and eccentric individuals who move the story along.
If anything is wrong with this movie it's that you can see the slight inexperience in Linklater's writing, something he has obviously overcome because he has made a slew of other fantastic films since making what is only his third feature film. The script, albeit very well written, does walk the line between superficial and profound at times. And yet the conceited ideals our protagonists exude coincide with the youthful ignorance this film beautifully portrays in its characters.
This film captures the spirit of its characters, and draws you into accepting all of the decisions which, in retrospect, might have been foolish. A girl getting off a train with a stranger she just met to visit a town she's never been to seems like a bad idea if you ask me, but Before Sunrise convinces us so genuinely that love is real and will conquer all.