Walking and Talking and Nothing More

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2007)

We pick up the lives of Jesse and Céline in mid-stride. When we left them at the end of Before Sunrise, they refused to exchange addresses and last names, but were going to meet in Vienna in six months. Nine years later, we glimpse their lives again. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) has finished a book and is giving a reading/discussion and Shakespeare and Co. in Paris. At the end of the reading, he spies Céline (julie Delpy) watching from the wings. They go for a walk to catch up before he has to head to the airport. During this walk we learn that they did not meet up in Vienna, and have both attempted to move on in their lives.
There are several things that make this movie stand out. First, this is a movie of dialogue and discussion about live, living and one's views, beliefs and outlook. There are no explosions, chases, kisses, heists, plot twists, etc. This is just two people talking. What I loved about the two films is the easy and open way in which these two discuss trivial and deeply personal subjects and how they are intermixed. What else made this film engaging was the warts-and-all approach to life. These characters weren't glamorous or glamorized, they were just people. And the fact that they picked up and explored the people they had become from mid-20s to mid-30s, who had strayed quite a distance from the idealized vision of their future they had had nine years earlier really brought it home. I too, am different and worse than the me I had planned on being 9 years ago. The only problem I had with this film was the character of Céline, it didn't ring true to me, too much idealism left and until she wigged out in the taxi, I didn't buy into her life.
This movie is like crispy french fries and special fry sauce. In the west, fry sauce is a big deal. It is usually a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise with various spices and flavors added. Special fry sauce is a sauce the cooks (me included) used to whip up at Carousel Ice Cream Parlour in Provo, Utah in 1995 for ourselves and a few other employees. It had regular fry sauce, BBQ sauce and more mayo to make it a little tangier and better than the regular. Now this movie doesn't have much to do with the flavor or texture of special fry sauce and crispy French fries, but I only worked at Carousel in 95 and the experiential phenomena surrounding this dish (that I only ate during one year) overwhelm the taste in my mind . I was a different Poco back then, and thinking about the super fry sauce take me back to a more idealistic youth and the big plans I had for myself. 7/10
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