"Memory is a wonderful thing if you don't have to deal with the past."

Rating: 7/10 (7 December 2017)

At the conclusion of my review for "Before Sunrise", I practically vowed I wouldn't be catching any of the sequels, but IMDb beckons with it's Top #250 list (this one from #2015), so here I am again. I thought there might be a more mature handling of the now adult Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), but it seems like they're still stuck in that awkward teenage stage of their lives. At least that's the case with the dialog that consumes most of the picture.
I think Celine probably bothered me more this time around. She's rather neurotic, and keeps asking Jesse if HE thinks she's neurotic, and she won't take 'no' for an answer because she's like..., neurotic. She's the first one again to insert the 'F' word into their conversation, this time by way of the middle finger, and isn't it just perfect that she works for the Green Cross. And oh yes, she can't take Jesse's compliment about her looks. Because he thinks her face looks 'skinnier', she launches into a self recriminating 'fatty' diatribe. This kind of stuff wears me down, folks.
And then the topper to blow Jesse out of the water - she can't even agree on whether they made love that night nine years ago. Turns out Celine laid that trip on Jesse because of her own insecurities, and wound up correcting her version later on, but it's those kind of mind games that mess a guy up. And all the while it's pretty transparent that Jesse's not going to catch that plane because he keeps diverting his attention to the next step of the plan to get back together with her.
I thought that long, long walk up the stairs pretty much captured the desire each was hoping for, the inevitable that would happen once they got to Celine's apartment. The story ended in just the right way for me, with that ambiguity hanging out there even though Jesse telegraphed what was going to happen by stating he didn't much care about taking his plane home. And so it comes to the point where I have to implore IMDb reviewers, please, please don't make me watch "Before Midnight" with a rating that makes it a top movie favorite. One more time would be just too much, I have no desire to find out what happened with these two star crossed lovebirds.