The Pinnacle of Romance Films

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2013)

Before Sunrise is arguably the best romance film I have had the pleasure of watching. It's so real and charming that it's impossible not to like. It is fresh in the way it doesn't count on corny romance clichés or sappy-ness to show you the love between the two characters, you can literally feel it.
Before Sunrise starts on a train headed to Vienna. On this train the two main characters Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet for the first time when Celine ends up sitting next to Jesse. From here they begin conversing and slowly but surely revealing personal details and intimate facts about one another which creates an undeniable connection.
Julie Delpy plays Celine in such a way that makes it extremely easy to believe somebody could fall in love with her in one day by just listening to her talk and being in her presence. Ethan Hawke does the same thing for Jesse, maybe not to the same degree but it still works. The acting in this movie had to be great or else it would have been a train wreck because of the way the movie is based solely on personal connection between just two characters.
Before Sunrise boasts scenes of pure emotional joy and real, true bliss. It also has a few laughs to keep it from being too serious. The movie as a whole touches your heart in a way that makes it so you cant imagine the characters ever parting ways and root for them with all your might. It sucks you in, it makes you love the characters, their relationship and just everything else about it. It does this by using it's no frills method of just using heart-to-heart conversations to put all the characters emotions and inner workings right out on the table. The writing and directing by Richard Linklater is pristine. This movie is the pinnacle of the romance genre and deserves to and should be seen by everyone.