Linklater did it again...great film, perfect title.

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2004)

I never expected to see a sequel to Before Sunrise and had I heard that they would be making one, I would have simply asked why. But having seen a screening of it, I profess that Linklater has managed to capture the magic again.
Linklater, et al, have successfully brought us another wonderful and intimate film with Hawke and Delphy. Their characters have grown into adults in a way that you would have hoped and expected without being predictable. Delphy and Hawke have a unique and pleasant chemistry that keeps you rooting for them the whole time. I'm sure these two are very close in real life.
The setting and scenery are perfect and left me longing for a trip to Europe and lamenting the fact that I wasn't actually watching this in Europe.
One of the many things that impressed me the most about this film is the fact that you need not see the first one in order to understand this one. Another thing that impressed me is the perfect title, "If Not Now". I'm glad that this is the title. It would cheat the whole charm of the film if they went with something like, "Before...this", or "After...that". A title like that would only be pandering to the marketing department, not to mention the fact that it would make it sound like Ice Cube's "Friday" series.
Before I conclude I would also like to applaud the fantastic ending. Not many filmmakers can pull and ending off like that without leaving an audience feeling cheated. In this case the opposite is true and I left feeling rewarded and satisfied.