Beautifully Imperfect

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2005)

What made "Before Sunrise" so wonderful was that the two primary characters were flawed like real people. They were occasionally vulgar, or rude, or annoying, but we never stopped liking them.
The truest accomplishment of "Before Sunset" is that these same flawed characters remain steadfast in their imperfections, but have gained an additional wordly-wise maturity. What's more important is that in the follow-up of the one night in Vienna, we see how profoundly the experience shaped the two characters in the same wonderfully eccentric, artful, and pensive ways.
The growth of these characters in the interim seems so natural, it literally feels like we're reunited with them, following this conversation with the same curiosity and shyness. What's more, is that the artistic spirit of the original film carries with emotional resonance through the picture's conclusion. There are no easy questions, and no easy answers, provided in the film.
Best of all, it sensuously exposes the audience's predisposition for "canned" plots - where we strive to see things neatly tied up and concluded. I must admit that more than anything else, the unanswered questions in the film are more interesting than the loose ends that they tie up. At one point early on in the film, Jesse remarks to three readers of his book that one is a romantic, one is a skeptic, and the other is neutral. The romantic fills in the ending in a way that holds true to romance, the skeptic toward realistic pragmatism, and the neutral simply accepts the ending at face value.
And I loved it. It's so atypical of any "romance" or "drama" film out there because it's so unabashedly human, imperfect, awkward, sensuous, ambiguous, and ultimately, perhaps even hopeful.