{"id":2950,"date":"2013-05-23T23:20:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T06:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=2950"},"modified":"2013-05-23T23:29:53","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T06:29:53","slug":"review-before-midnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=2950","title":{"rendered":"Review: BEFORE MIDNIGHT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As I was sitting in a Cambridge, Massachusetts\u2019 movie theater in early 1995, vaguely entertained but mostly patiently waiting for \u201cBefore Sunrise\u201d to end, I could not have guessed that nearly 20 years later I\u2019d have fallen head over heels for the film\u2019s two main characters.\u00a0 Of course part of the reason I couldn\u2019t have anticipated this change in opinion is because I had no idea director Richard Linklater and stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke would decide to revisit these characters in nine year intervals.\u00a0 2004\u2019s \u201cBefore Sunset\u201d was, simply put, a beautiful movie with an ending that left its fans wanting much more.\u00a0 Cut to 2013 and we once again have the pleasure of spending nearly two hours with Jesse and Celine.<\/p>\n

In the previous films, Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) were romantic souls seemingly fated to find each other.\u00a0 From the information viewers were given, in the span of 9 years they had spent less than a combined 24 hours together.\u00a0 The magical chemistry they shared in \u201cBefore Sunset\u201d lends credence to the notion that distance makes the heart grow fonder.\u00a0 But in contrast to the mainly smooth ride of \u201cSunset,\u201d the situations the couple find themselves in this time around are quite a bit thornier \u2013 as you might expect now that they\u2019ve been living together for several years and have twin daughters.\u00a0 Even a romance as seemingly perfect as this one can\u2019t escape the grind of day-to-day life.<\/p>\n

The film opens with Jesse saying goodbye to his son, Hank (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), at the airport after spending a summer together in Greece.\u00a0 Hank is on his way back to his mother in the U.S., and like in the immediate aftermath of all their partings, Jesse laments not being a bigger part of his son\u2019s life.\u00a0 He dances around the suggestion of moving back to the States to be with his son, but Celine is firmly against the idea.\u00a0 For starters, she has been offered a good job opportunity in France, where the couple lives, and also fears Jesse\u2019s ex-wife will prevent them from getting too close to Hank.<\/p>\n

Jesse, a novelist, has written two books, and is in Greece, with his family, at a writer\u2019s retreat.\u00a0 Another couple at the retreat has given Jesse and Celine parting gifts in the forms of looking after their daughters for one night and treating them to a room in a beautiful hotel.\u00a0 They are somewhat reluctant to accept the gifts, but ultimately set off for an evening away from their daily routine.\u00a0 What starts off as an idyllic romantic escapade gradually morphs into a night of anger, frustration and resentment.<\/p>\n

I may be guilty of making a grand overstatement, but it\u2019s possible in the history of cinema, viewers have never had the opportunity to know film characters as intimately as they do Jesse and Celine.\u00a0 Sure, there have been characters with more screen appearances, but movie franchises are usually built around big concepts, not the nuances of human behavior.\u00a0 Those who have seen the first two films understand these movies aren\u2019t plot driven, and are instead fueled by conversations almost exclusively between two characters.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, \u201cBefore Midnight\u201d is a talky movie, but the chatter adds depth.\u00a0 There\u2019s a scene at the retreat in the movie\u2019s first half where Jesse and Celine engage in a conversation with a group of people.\u00a0 Admittedly, the scene drags, and at first I felt like it was due to unfocused dialogue.\u00a0 But upon second thought, this scene\u2019s dialogue isn\u2019t really less focused than in several other parts of the film.\u00a0 The reason it doesn\u2019t mesh so well is because there are more participants in it than just Celine and Jesse.\u00a0 If we\u2019re only going to see these characters every nine years, I suppose I\u2019d like my time with them to not be interrupted by extraneous elements.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s final 30 or so minutes are riveting \u2013 perhaps the most gripping section to be found in the trilogy.\u00a0 The tension reaches a boil when words are spoken that, at least figuratively, knock the wind out of the viewer.\u00a0 In fact, I can\u2019t deny part of me wishes the film would\u2019ve ended after this line was uttered \u2013 it would\u2019ve been an incredibly bold move, but may have also come across like a cheap ploy.\u00a0 I\u2019ll defer to the writers\u2019 (Linklater, Delpy and Hawke) judgment on this one.\u00a0 Structurally, the film unfolds much like \u201cBefore Sunset\u201d with long takes and long scenes.\u00a0 Certainly what adds to the movies\u2019 allure is the photogenic settings, which Linklater again maximizes.<\/p>\n

Although I\u2019d advise potential viewers to watch the first two films before taking in \u201cBefore Midnight,\u201d there\u2019s an effective simplicity to the story that makes it possible to jump in without needing the background. \u00a0And I look forward to the day when I can watch these movies as a triple feature.\u00a0 As for a part four, well, I cringe to think of how old I\u2019ll be when 2022 rolls around, but getting to reunite with Jesse and Celine for another two hours is a comforting thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A good thing keeps getting better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2950"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2964,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions\/2964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}