Wanna know what happened next? I'll tell you :-)

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2005)

So, here's my take on what happens next after this movie ends: Jesse and Celine make love, passionately, in every corner of her apartment, until the following morning at about five-thirty. Jesse writes Celine a tortured, "we both knew we couldn't be together" note on her telephone message pad, pins it to the 'fridge with a magnet, and disappears out into the damp Paris pre-dawn to call the valet and get a lift to the airport for a later flight. Why do I feel all of this so strongly? Well, it works on the same logic as Helen Hunt's character not getting back together with Chuck at the end of Cast Away: Clearly Jessee loved, has loved, loves, and will always love Celine -- but the movie makes it equally clear that, as much as they are mourning the missed opportunity in Vienna, they are also mourning the loss of their own youth; and one of the hallmarks of losing one's youth is that you start to choose responsibilities over passions. If the next sequel doesn't open with them having another chance meeting after having not seen each other for another nine years, I'm going to cry foul. I mean, come on: they're in their thirties now -- they know better than to start permanently mucking-up each others' lives.