A Pleasantly Forgettable Treat

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2004)

Before Sunset is the indie sequel to the 1995 indie favorite, Before Sunrise. It's worth thinking about that statement for a moment or two. An indie sequel. That alone is something of note. That the sequel is quite good is also of note, but this is indie film-making where if a director is talented they tend to stay talented. It also was made for $10 million, which, despite it being significantly less than the $200 million blockbusters filling theaters recently, does still put its indie status in question. Regardless, what we have here is a pleasant movie, presented in a unique method, that largely maintains its integrity throughout to ultimately give you a warm squishy feeling that most of those uber-expensive blockbusters lack.
The film stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke as Celine and Jesse, respectively. Years ago, in another movie, Jesse and Celine met on their way to Vienna, fell in love, had a wonderful day, then said they'd meet back in Vienna six months later. 'Before Sunset' informs us that, for one reason or another, they never made it back to see each other again. Jesse has turned into an author in the intervening years and is on a book tour in Paris for a novel he wrote about the Vienna trip, and Celine, having read the book, comes to see him. After a brief press conference, the two get together and begin to catch up on how the other has been doing with the other's life in the eighty minutes that Jesse has between the conference and his flight back to the United States.
The eighty minutes is important because the entire movie plays out in real time, with not a single moment lost between the end of the opening credits and the start of the closing credits. The camera follows the two as they walk about Paris conversing about everything from career to sex to misconceptions about the last time they met up, generally following the "we bought a steady-cam and by God we're going to use it" school of photography.
This style, while offering excellent views and colors throughout the film, does grate during some of the longer shots, putting you in nervous anticipation for a cutaway to another shot--or maybe that was just me being impatient. It also gives ample opportunity for the occasional mistake, in this case a few instances of visible boom mikes, something the $10 million budget should have prevented getting into the final edit.
These few instances of perceived laziness, however, do nothing to detract from the generally excellent performances given by Hawke and Delpy. The two are conversationally frank and very believable, each delivering their dialogue in the kind of memory-drunk ways in which those types of meandering conversations tend to flow. In short, the performances are perfect for the material. If the material itself has any faults they are probably in the latter half of the film where the conversation goes from being happily non-committal to something of much more emotional depth. The transition between these two styles was realistic though given the feel of the film itself up to that point, it can be a bit jarring. Both sections of the movie are handled with equal aplomb, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I enjoyed the first, happier, half to the second, more involved, half.
Ultimately this is a filmic light snack. Something tasty, not too filling, very enjoyable, and in the end pleasantly forgettable. It is a window into eighty minutes of two lives intersecting years after a hopelessly romantic fling that stands apart from its prequel, looks beautiful, is well written, and is remarkably honest.