Before Sunrise

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2016)

"Before Sunrise" is a film that is much, much better than it sounds on paper. It is mostly compromised of long takes of just these two characters, Jesse and Celine, who have just met on a train, talking. Just talking, about anything. Much of it on their various philosophies on life and about themselves. They are seemingly more honest to each other than to anyone else they know, such as in the fake phone call scene, and it shows in Ethan Hawke's and Julie Delpy's chemistry in this film, which is some of the best of any romance film ever. They both give fantastic performances, and they seem to completely inhabit their characters. It's possible that the film wouldn't work if it were any other two actors, and because they are so perfect for their roles, we end up believing every single word that they say, unlike many other romance films. This is a film that is very easy to get lost in, whether it's the fantastic and natural but revealing dialogue or the fantastic acting and chemistry between the leads or the long, long tracking shots in which the flow of the actors and their dialogue all come together so perfectly to pull us completely into their relationship. But we get so lost in the moment, as the characters do, that it's gone before we realize it, and we come to the harsh realization that their time together must come to an end for a long period of time. They say that they will meet on that exact day, six months from them, but we never really know. As we saw earlier they completely forgot about the play that they were asked to go to, and 6 months from now, sadly, who knows if they will remember to come? We also are hinted at the beginning of hard times to come when the film opens with an older foreign couple fighting and neither of the two main characters understand the language their speaking in, but it's also a metaphor for how they don't understand their struggles. Yet.