Before Sunset

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2012)

I am pretty sure that I heard the title of this sequel before the title of the original, Sunrise, so having watched the fantastic original I was very interested to see how the follow up would fare, from writer / director Richard Linklater (Waking Life, School of Rock, A Scanner Darkly, Me and Orson Welles). Basically it has been nine years since Jesse (Ethan Hawke), now a writer from the United States, and Céline (Julie Delpy), now an environmental protection organisation worker, met on the train from Budapest to Vienna and spent a day, and a night, together. They "coincidentally" reconnect when Jesse is in France, Paris to promote his novel "This Time", inspired by his time with Céline, as he talks about the book, and a new one he is planning he has flashbacks about her, then he spots her outside smiling. The bookstore manager reminds him he will be catching a plane back to America within an hour or so, so when they decide to spend some time together just wandering the city their time together is again constrained. As before they talk about themselves, but mostly what has happened since they last met and what they have learned and changes in their circumstances, for example Jesse is married with a little boy, and Céline has a boyfriend, and obviously as they find all this out there are many personal questions and explanations. Jesse admits that he did show up in Vienna at the spot where they said they would meet again in six months, but Céline explains that she could not come because her grandmother died and the funeral happened to be that day, and they did not exchange addresses or phone numbers, so the chances of them meeting again were slim. As they talk and continue to stroll around Paris they express opinions of how life in general has changed, i.e. in the world, but mostly they clearly show dissatisfaction of the lives they have now, Jesse is only staying married for the sake of his son, and Céline hardly sees her boyfriend at all because he is always on assignment, and they talk about the fact that they had sex together, twice. They go through various venues, a coffee shop, a garden, a park, an open excursion boat, and in a hire car, their feelings for each other are slowly rekindled, but at the same time there is small frustration that they could not get together those nine years ago. Jesse admits that he was desperate to see Céline again so much that he wrote the book in the hope of her reading it and finding her, and she admits that she did read it, twice, and it brought back emotional memories of their time together. The concluding scene sees them go quickly into her apartment where Céline promised to play him a song on her guitar that she wrote herself, she plays him her waltz song (written by Delpy) which contains lyrics that clearly relate to their time together, and Jesse then puts on a Nina Simone CD that she dances to and imitates Simone's voice and attitude, and the last moment sees her say "Baby... you are gonna miss that plane.", and he just smiles and says "I know", and the film ends. Once again Hawke and Delpy have great chemistry together, obviously being in their thirties their characteristics have changed slightly, but you can tell that the characters long to possibly show stronger affection than they may be expressing. The script is still witty enough, and the real time concept this time makes the film flow in a different style that is interesting, I will admit the fact that they already know each other makes their conversation not as much fun, but it certainly engages you enough to see what will happen next, whether they will reconnect, so overall a likable romantic drama sequel. Good!