Charming but sophomoric

Rating: 7/10 (22 November 2004)

In Richard Linklater's charming Before Sunset, the highly praised sequel to his 1995 film Before Sunrise, Jesse (Ethan Hawke), now married with a four-year old son, is in Paris on the last leg of a book tour. Celine (Julie Delpy), his partner from a short-lived romance nine years ago, shows up at a roundtable for his book signing and they pick up almost immediately where they left off. Jesse has eighty minutes before he has to leave to catch his plane and that is how long the movie lasts. They go for coffee and take a walk through Paris. They talk and talk, then talk some more. Without pausing to take a breath, as if fearful of a moment of silence, they engage in non-stop conversation about the world situation, the element of chance in their lives, the environment, relationships between men and women, and their memories of what actually occurred in Vienna.
Celine talks about how unfulfilling her life has been and there is a sad undertone of remorse and regret for the things that might have been. Jesse complains about his unrewarding marriage but does not take responsibility for his lack of satisfaction or consider the commitments he made to his wife and son. In a strange sequence in a restaurant, they both light up cigarettes and blow smoke in each other's faces, a scene that is incongruous in light of Celine's passion for the environment. Does Linklater want to send a message to young viewers that smoking is romantic? One would have thought that in the intervening years, Mr. Linklater's characters would have acquired a reasonable degree of emotional maturity but such is not the case and all the sexual banter and philosophical posturing feels sophomoric.
Comparisons have been made to another film that consisted mainly of conversation, My Dinner with André. That film was not only intellectually stimulating but emotionally satisfying, an experience that allowed us in the space of two hours to re-explore our own lives and rethink the way we see the universe. Before Sunset is not in the same league. Some are calling it "breathless", "sweet", "smart", and "one of the supreme movie romances of the post-'80s era", but to me it falls far short of those accolades. It is a well directed and well acted film with great picture-postcard shots of Paris (that carefully avoids the congestion and urban blight), some witty dialogue, and a very clever ending. What it lacks is an ability to communicate the unfathomable grace of love in a way that transcends banality.