Paris walks

Rating: 6/10 (13 November 2014)

I have seen the Before trilogy in the wrong order. Before Sunrise saw Jesse and Celine as two young travellers who meet on a train during a trip to Vienna and bond. They exchange little details about themselves and agree to meet up at the same place on a particular date.
Before Midnight released in 2013 is set almost 20 years after they have first met. They are now married, vacationing in Greece and have entered middle life and their relationships now show some cracks.
Before Sunset is therefore the filling of the sandwich. After 9 years, Jesse is travelling in Europe as part of a book tour. He again encounters Celine who has come looking for him in a Paris bookshop.
We find out that Jesse did turn up in Vienna but Celine could not has it was her grandmother's funeral. That event has somehow thrown both their fate in a different direction.
Older, wiser, with both having a career established. They still have much to look forward to but there is also now past regrets. Celine has had relationship failures and Jesse is married with a child but its not a happy marriage. Its clear that both carry a torch for each other and their initial encounter left deep marks.
The rest of the film is the couple walking in Paris or on a boat on the River Seine. We get to know a bit more about these characters as they fill the gap in between the years we last saw them.
Its clear that Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have a nice chemistry and comfortable with each other. They look like long lost lovers and of course they co-wrote the screenplay. Just look at Jesse's face when he finds out that Celine had lived in New York and worse he was also there at the same time.
I do think that director Richard Linklater could had done more to show the beauty of Paris and to be honest the touristic element of Paris apart from Notre Dame. I have walked a similar route and taken a boat ride on the River Seine and the film could had done with the picture postcard scenes to break up the monotony of these two people walking and talking. Its kind of natural for Jesse who is after all a visitor to the city.
The conversation is interesting but not riveting. Its natural but does not flow again because the screenplay wants to unwrap its layers slowly and methodically.
Jesse is on a tight schedule as he has a plane to catch but its clear he does not want to leave her. We now know that there is more to their story and shall re-visit them again.