Nine years have passed, but Jesse and Céline are as talkative as ever...

Rating: 9/10 (31 October 2013)

Nine years have passed, but Jesse and Céline are as talkative as ever when they reunite in "Before Sunset". He's written a (partly fictional) book about the night that he shared with Céline in Vienna, and she comes to see him on his book tour in Paris. They only have 80 minutes together until he has to catch a plane back, so they continue where they left off – they walk and talk. Having re-watched "Midnight in Paris" so recently, it's easy to see differences in Allen and Linklater's styles. Allen is so much more focused on showing the audience Paris and the great things in it, while Linklater focuses on what he considers to be more important – the endless conversation of Jesse and Céline. This doesn't mean that we don't get a small glimpse of the city, and the backgrounds to their walk are frequently stunning. They even get on a riverboat at one point, so we get even more of the city through this.
The film is slightly shorter than the first one, but feels like the perfect length, because it's done entirely in real time. Their walk around Paris is unabridged for the viewer, so we never feel like we've missed anything. It's as sharp and funny as ever, but this time with more emotions. They didn't end up meeting 6 months after "Before Sunrise", and there's some pain between them. To change matters even more, Jesse is now married and has a child. We're never really sure what this means for the two of them, but desperately want them to end up together. Once again, the two of them only have a limited amount of time together, and both know it, so they don't hold back at all, discussing everything under the sun. In the end, just before Jesse must leave, they go up to Céline's apartment. This final scene is one of the greatest endings to any film I know, and has an even more infuriating cliffhanger than the end of the first film. Julie Delpy's Nina Simone impression is fantastic, and the final line and fade out is done so perfectly.
The performances in the film are perhaps even stronger than in "Before Sunrise", as we are given more of a view into the emotional ranges of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. They're occasionally angry and sad now, not just happy and in love. The two are credited in this film as co-writers with Richard Linklater, which helps the film so much, as they know their characters inside out. Linklater's style continues in this film, with more long shots, and the use of real time allows him just to follow them. The cinematography feels passive to the idle viewer, but lots of the angles and shots are done very beautifully. It's the perfect continuation of the love story, and one of the few sequels that is as good as the first film.