Soulmates Intersect and Wallow in Thoughtful What-Ifs

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2006)

I never thought 1995's "Before Sunrise" was any great shakes perhaps because the concept felt like a romantic conceit albeit an intelligently scripted one especially for a film about a couple of kids in their early twenties. Time has probably mellowed me, as I find director Richard Linklater's 2004 sequel an entertaining talkfest that pierces with certain life truths. Nine years after their life-altering brief encounter in Vienna, Jesse and Celine meet again in Paris. Now a successful first-time novelist on a book tour, he sees her show up at his final book signing at the famous Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, and after some hesitation, they pick up where they left off. Celine is now an environmental activist, and their conversation continues for nearly an hour and a half in real time, before Jesse is scheduled to catch a plane home to his wife and son. Linklater follows the lovers -- who had promised to reunite in Vienna in six months and never did -- from café to park to boat to an intense car ride to Celine's apartment. In a manner that seems even closer to Louis Malle's "My Dinner With Andre" than the first one, they spend the time talking about the passage of time, shifting ideals both political and romantic, harbored ambitions, unfulfilled desire, religion, sex and monogamy and inconsistent memories.
Looking particularly aged compared to the flashbacks from the first movie, Ethan Hawke effortlessly captures the frustrated ennui of an unfulfilled artist, his romantic ideals reborn by this unexpected encounter. But it's Julie Delpy who more dexterously shows the subtle impact of her diminished expectations against her luminous former self, peaking with her visceral emotional breakdown in the car. She also shows herself to be a fine singer as she performs a plaintive waltz for Jesse at the end. The film is quite brief, just eighty minutes long, but it feels like the right length given the story's limited focus. Truth be told, there is still an air of self-indulgent pretension to some of their bantering, though I have come to accept the fact that this is a truthful aspect of their respective characters and the basis of their chemistry together. The fact that there is an easy, unforced air about their dialogue has a lot to do with Hawke's and Delpy's contributions to the script (they receive co-screen writing credit) and with the real rapport between the two actors. The DVD is relatively short on extras, for instance, there is surprisingly no audio commentary track, but there is a brief making-of featurette that helps provide the context of the story relative to the previous movie.