A Beautiful Sunset

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2004)

The first question I had before seeing Sunset (in fact ever since I heard that Sunset was coming) was: "Why?"... Why mess with Sunrise given that it was such a great stand alone film... Would they live up to answering the "what ifs?" would the chemistry still be there? etc. etc. ... needless to say, I think the answer is a resounding "yes".
The film picks up nine years after Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine's (Julie Delpy) magical chance encounter in Vienna. This time around we find them in Paris where Jesse is wrapping up a European roadshow to promote his newly published bestseller about (what else?) that one special night. We find them now older (and Ethan looks a bit more worse for wear than Julie), more experienced, more cynical with hearts that have hardened a bit over time in spite of -- or perhaps due to -- the whimsical possibilities of that fateful night nine years prior.
From the outset of the film, the director does a sublime job of drawing the viewer in with long easy takes as Jesse and Celine embark on a stroll from the bookstore to the café - almost seems as if the first exchange is captured by one long uninterrupted take with no cuts (though there are a couple). They ease into their exchange very comfortably. The questions and dialogue have the same, familiar natural feel and tone, and Hawke and Delpy both do an incredible job slipping into their earlier roles - the chemistry has not been lost. The playful sarcasm, the sexual tension, the flirting, the wit, the insecurities. All there.
You can sense the longing that Jesse has (has always had) for Celine from the get-go. In fact, my take even from Sunrise was that Jesse's attraction to Celine was always more stronger - almost as if he "needed" her. His vulnerability and ability to "put it all out there" - things that guys, in general, have such a hard time doing.
The film moves on to the boat which echoes the scene from Sunrise where Jesse convinces her to take a ride with him. The journey symbolizes a trip to the past where Celine realizes that Jesse's life isn't the picture perfect life that she imagined (i.e. the successful author, the wife and the kid). She almost seems to want to know  needs to have - the affirmation that Jesse still carries a torch for her, even though she (and the viewer) already should KNOW this - because WE know Jesse and his book about "that one night" is a tangible testament to that (this is the one plot element which I found a bit annoying).
The car scene is symbolic as well as they are in an enclosed space and need to deal with the things that are bottled up inside - claustrophobic yet no escaping it. They both reveal what they have both always wanted to hear from one another (albeit in different ways and different circumstances), that they have both been truly alone since they last left each other that fateful night in Vienna. The raw emotion, the honesty - incredible moments.
The culmination is the walk up the staircase to Celine's apartment, in relative silence, some things are better left unsaid  the choices, the reasoning, left unsaid. And then Celine's song which symbolizes a lot of things and demonstrates how much Jesse has meant to her even though she has a difficult time saying it in words.
Nine years later, they have of course grown into full adults with all the superficial trappings that come with that  a career, relationships, etc. But, still, they are both drawn to "that one fateful night", and the redemption for both people is that it was just as meaningful to each person as it was for the other, for different reasons and for similar ones. The bittersweet anguish of having those memories and carrying that emotional baggage over that time echoes even deeper in the respective voids in their lives; as Celine puts it: "memories are a wonderful thing if you don't have to deal with the past"  almost sums up that anguish. When people are young they worry about not becoming "someone" - but as they get older - everyone worries about not being WITH "someone".
In Sunset, they are both vindicated in realizing that they did not "waste" the last nine years living as damaged emotionless zombies - that their chance encounter was a truly magical moment changing both of their lives, that they were both "incomplete" without each other (ok, cue the corny music), that they really do "complete each other".
The true beauty of Sunset is that it allows them to indulge in the luxury of what many people do not get: the opportunity for a second chance, at best, and, at worst, an opportunity for some measure of closure.
And so it fittingly ends with the viewer pondering yet again "what happens now?" which, in retrospect, is a much more hopeful and infinitely more enviable question to answer than: "what if?"
In sum, a wonderful film - bravo.
***1/2 out of ****