Before Sunset

After their one night together, nine years before, Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) haven't seen each other.  Until, that is, Jesse writes a book about their experience.  Hearing about it, Celine tracks him down to his final book-signing, coincidentally at her favourite bookstore in Paris where she now lives.

With time to kill until Jesse needs to catch his plane, the two decide to walk through Paris, as they did in Vienna almost a decade before.

Hawke and Delpy reprise their characters from nine years before.  Jesse, the American, who was once a wandering romantic, has grown into a family man.  Married, with a four year old son, he appears to have hung up his leather jacket and turned into a homemaker.  However, throughout his conversation with Celine, it becomes clear that he isn't happy;  After losing Celine, and various other events, he decided that since romance hadn't worked, and since his girlfriend was pregnant, he should maybe try the settling down thing.  It doesn't seem to be working out for him.

Celine's gone almost the same way, turning into a serial monogamist.  Although she doesn't seem particularly enamoured with her current boyfriend, she claims she loves him.

The two characters begin talking politely, as old friends.  This soon deepens into something resembling their relationship in the previous film, changed slightly by their differing ages and experiences.  They walk, and talk as they did before, and talk about what's happened since they last met.

Their relationship shifts again, however, as they talk more, and begin to admit what each other meant, despite the little interaction their two lives have had.  It soon becomes apparent that they've been closer than they thought - for several years, they lived in the same city, streets away from each other.  Jesse tells Celine that he thought he saw her on his wedding day -  a quick recap of their varying locations reveals that it may well have been her.

In many ways, the film's about second chances, and how little things can change the course of someones life.  It also seems to be about how, if somethings meant to be, it's meant to be, although that might just be my romantic interpretation.

Plotwise, not much happens in the film.  The two characters walk and talk, for the hour and half or so that the film lasts.  The time which passes onscreen is almost identical to that which passes off-screen - in other words, the action takes place in real time.

The important events aren't in what happens in the film, but in what happens within the own characters mind.  At the beginning, Jesse was hoping to see Celine, to see what would happen, perhaps.  He admits that he often thought that, if they had managed to meet, his whole life could have been different.  Celine is more guarded than he is, but when she drops that guard and starts to think about how, maybe her life could be different, it's a dramatic change.

In short, once more, the important part of the film is in the relationship between the characters, and once again Hawke and Delpy play their parts to perfection.  Hawke and Delpy are credited, along with director Richard Linklater as scriptwriters, which implies, as suspected, that they ad-libbed much of their conversation.

This film also takes place nine years from the prequel, in time passed onscreen and off.  The actors have aged naturally, and, to be honest, it's a little disappointing how quickly Ethan Hawke aged.  He's not unattractive, don't get me wrong - I just preferred him when he was in his early twenties, with that sexy jacket.  Delpy still looks just as gorgeous as ever, though.

Paris is a beautiful city - the characters comment on the architecture, at one point - although it isn't used much in this film.  It makes a nice backdrop to the plot, though.

In summary, although Before Sunset can drag a little at times, the whole thing passes much faster than you'd think, almost like a real conversation with a loved one.  If the cliff-hanger ending of Sunrise drove you crazy, then this film more than makes up for it.