Honeybeads Blog

for Before Sunrise
for Before Sunset

This review is going to be mainly for Before Sunrise.

Richard Linklater has always impressed me as a director, and more and more as I watch his movies, he impresses me greatly as a writer (Slacker, Tape, Waking Life). Like most of his movies (besides perhaps School of Rock, although it really ends up being a story of human relationships), these two films deal with Linklater's love of character development and the relationship between the people in the story (Before Sunset was actually nominated for an Oscar its writing). Before Sunrise finds Jesse (Ethan Hawke) riding on a train to Vienna where he is going to catch a plane the next morning to fly back to the States. Also on the train is Celine (Julie Delpy) who sits across the aisle from Jesse. They end up talking and moving into the lobby for more conversation. They hit it off and when it's time for Jesse to get off the train, he convinces Celine to spend his night in Vienna with him. Unlike most Hollywood films, Linklater stops there and does not add in unecessary subplots that take away from the realness of these two young people getting to know each other. Like many of the great plotless films about love (High Fidelity, Garden State, Lost in Translation, The Graduate, etc.), I think that this one stands out the most.

The dialogue delivered by the actors seems so real and spontaneous that you forget you are watching a scripted film. You feel as though you are watching a real, documented experience between two people falliing in love with each other. There are many great scenes that deal with the awkwardness of beginning a relationship as well as conversations that will remind you of (or at least did me) things you have either thought before or actually discussed with someone before. The movie is truely touching and sincere. The time length of 110 minutes might seem frightening since the whole film is about two people walking around Vienna in short period of time, however it never feels slow or boring. The film just seems so real and fascinating that you really grow attached to the characters. And I'm sure you would become even more emotionally attached if you have a serious girlfriend/boyfriend or are married.

Overall: Both films are fantastic. Before Sunrise is one of the greatest stories about love I've ever seen, and seems the truest story about love as well. I think the two films would work much more effectively if I had actually seen Before Sunrise when it came out in 1995 and then did not see the sequel until it was made 9 years later. Watching it back to back took a bit away from the attachment that the first film gave me, however, it still works really great as a sequel. I highly recommend seeing Before Sunrise. If you have a heart as well as a belief in true love, you will not regret it.