Really regret seeing it!

Rating: 5/10 (23 December 2006)

"Before Sunrise" was one of my all-time favourite movies, but when I heard they were making a sequel, I was nervous. The open ending of the first installment was so note-perfect in leaving people free to draw their own conclusions about what happened that I didn't want it to be ruined. As such, I delayed seeing this as long as possible.
I should have delayed longer. Much longer. Like, forever.
Simply put, "Before Sunset" takes a couple of intriguing, interesting, fully-drawn characters and turns them into insufferable cads, caught up in their own memories and having achieved nothing of note in their lives in ten years. It takes a beautiful, sweet chance romantic encounter and turns it into the cornerstone of these characters' lives. And it tries to make us believe that there's nothing better out there to hope for, ever. What a thoroughly depressing message! What injustice to these characters, who deserved a whole lot better! Of all the scenarios I ever imagined for these two, this was not it.
The first movie was great because it was about two people meeting by chance and truly connecting. But in the second movie, we're led to believe that since then, neither of them has managed to connect with anyone else. Both are in unsatisfying relationships when they meet up again - that part is not that hard to believe. But what is depressing in a creepy stalker-ish sort of way is that Hawke's character has devoted years of his life to writing about Delpy's, and that Delpy's character has devoted a significant amount of time to seeking out Hawke's character for a reunion.
Too, the movie downplays the thorny issue of marital infidelity and home-wrecking; people rooting for Hawke and Delpy to get back together should stop romanticizing everything and take a good hard look at the fact that they're cheering for a guy to leave (or at least cheat on) his wife and ditch his kid for a girl he had a one-night stand with nine years earlier. As for Delpy, she's writing and recording songs about a guy SHE had a one-night stand with. And neither of them quite realize the irony - that they're throwing away everything real in their lives in order to chase a fantasy that never really existed.
The first movie was great precisely because the characters were practical about the circumstances of their meeting; they accepted the fact that their connection was strong but brief, and that long-distance relationships don't work, and that the future is unpredictable. But neither took their own advice - instead, it seems they have been living hollowed half-existences for the past nine years, just waiting to find each other again.
And when they do, what exactly do they find? Is it realistic to think that these two will get along once they try to spend more than a single day together? It's all too obvious that they have nothing in common - even from the first movie, it's obvious that they differ politically, philosophically and culturally, and that the only reason they have such a great relationship is because it only lasts a night. By the second movie, they have grown even further apart on all those issues, plus they each carry around idealized, imaginary versions of one another that they have invented over a nine-year period and that will be impossible to live up to. Relationships - real relationships - are hard work, full of ups and downs, but they're *real*. What these two have isn't real. What they have is, well, just plain sad.
If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly urge you not to, because once you have seen it, there's no going back. These characters deserve so much better - just use your imagination.