Actual intoxicating perfection

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2013)

Rarely do I watch Before Sunrise and not Before Sunset immediately afterward. The former insists on the latter. A divine three hours indeed. The original writing team of Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan get the story credit, while Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke join Linklater for the screenplay credit. Way cool to have actors writing their own sublime dialogue. Funding difficulties forced a minimalism congruous with the naturalism. Done in real time with long continuous shots, there is not a hint of contrivance. I really cannot imagine an improvement of any significance on this superlative film.
Before Sunrise ended with Ethan Hawke's Jesse and Julie Delpy's Celine looking forward to their reunion six months later in Vienna. Jesse borrowed $2,000 from his dad to be there, while Celine had to attend her dearly beloved grandmother's funeral that same day. Talk about bad timing, but this was the very grandmother whom Celine visited that summer of '94 and, therefore, without whom they would never have met. Then again, we could say the same for Jesse's ex-girlfriend in Madrid. The absurd interplay of fate and chance intrigues and frustrates. They could have been in different cars on that train from Budapest.
The film and trilogy being quintessentially character-driven, Linklater's directorial touch is just right. He begins Before Sunset with a reverse-order montage that beautifully calls to mind that of the first film's ending. Jesse, by this time unhappily married with a 4-year-old son, is in a Parisian bookstore wrapping up a tour for his novel This Time, based on their brief encounter nine years previous. Never connecting with someone so deeply theretofore nor in the intervening nine years, the struggle to remain alive to his experience of their time together compelled him to immortalize that night by sharing with the world the significance of really meeting someone. More than that, he knew it was his best shot at seeing Celine again. Celine, who is working for an environmental organization called Green Cross and in a relationship with an often-away war photojournalist, smiles at a wonder-struck Jesse as he is finishing his talk. So much to say and so little time (just over an hour) before Jesse is to leave for the airport.
The years have naturally rendered them more worldly-wise this time around, as is reflected throughout their humorous, incisive dialogue, but having to revert back to a shared sense of hope and meaning is something of a paradox. There is truth to be found in the perceived naiveté of youth. Jesse, emotionally ravaged by their years apart, is torn between an undying love for Celine and the inertia of a loveless marriage, wherefrom his son Hank is the only saving grace. Celine by comparison is more of a closed book: harboring the guilt of missing their rendezvous, she had contentedly resigned herself to a life less delightful, but reading his novel awakened her to how hopelessly starved for meaning and excitement she has since been. Jadedly guarded, she keeps an emotional distance despite the undeniable sparks they again get one on one. How is married Jesse to help her after all?
There is a very touching moment on the tourist boat where Celine is at her loquacious best--real salt of the earth stuff--and Jesse, having relived their night together over and over to write his book, is simply compelled to address their preposterous misconnection as the clock ticks away. This leads into ever more personal territory as they exchange sorrowful revelations in a cathartic purge of pent-up grief. Bantering again, Celine hugs him strongly--their first embrace since going their separate ways nine years before--and though playing it cool, she seems to know her waltz (Julie Delpy's wonderful "A Waltz for a Night") is about to do the trick. The clock be damned, Jesse selects Nina Simone's "Just in Time" to which Celine respectfully impersonates the iconic singer.
Before Sunrise ended on a particularly sad note, so the uplifting nature of this subtly executed ending is all the more satisfying.