Stealing back those hours that could have been...

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2010)

"Before Sunset" is definitely one of those few select films which are great sequels to their predecessors. The funny thing is you don't ever feel inclined to critique such films, you just want to bask in its sunlit perfection, walk with the characters in the eternal city of Paris and get lost in a reverie. It's like a capsule of time taken out of the entangled lives of these two dislodged yet strangely connected souls, a page in their journal. You seem to project those unexplained emotions in your heart in the brilliantly portrayed characters, lose yourself in the meandering by- lanes of Paris and the words and repartee of the protagonists and you realize slowly with the characters the cost of missed opportunities and those painful could-have-beens. Despite the expected pragmatic, mature tones of the characters neither Jesse nor Celine could fully escape the effects of that intoxicating night at Vienna all those years back as we are left to imagine how it must have been in that original moment for it reverberate through the rest of their life leading up to Paris. And just like before, they set out to create another litany of vignettes that will surely go on to have repercussions in their lives. At the end you feel like it's the perfect sequel to "Before Sunrise", like you have always imagined Jesse and Celine to steal a few lost hours from the eternal flow of time and continue the conversation they had 10 years back in Vienna. The script, the walk and talk shoot, Nina Simone and that waltz song goes on to show the burgeoning brilliance of Linklater, ably assisted by Ethan and Julie. Echoing Jesse at the beginning of the movie here's the perfect test to examine if you are a romantic or a cynic - if you love Before Sunset you are bound to be a true romantic.