sweet return

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2016)

It's 9 years after the events of 'Before Sunrise'. American Jesse Wallace (Ethan Hawke) is in Paris on a book tour after writing about that night with Céline (Julie Delpy) in Vienna. He's coy to the reporters about that night. Céline shows up and they restart the conversation while he waits for his flight later that night. She reveals that she didn't make their planned meeting due to her grandmother's funeral. He reveals that he did return for the meeting. He's married with a son. She has a photojournalist boyfriend who is away. The conversation fluctuates between breezy and deeper material until personal truths start to be spilled.
Richard Linklater has hit on something compelling by returning to the same characters years later. It's casual and improvisational-like. Hawke and Delpy still have the same chemistry but more adult. It's deeper. There is an addition to the material by being a sequel. It's more than repetition. It's a sweet return of old friends.