Before Midnight(Richard Linklater,2013);USA

Reviewed by Felice Larsson, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2014.

Richard Linklater’s ” Before Sunrise ” (1995) became a minor revolution for the romantic drama . It was not innovative, but the story’s unpredictability and the dynamics between the characters , Jesse ( Ethan Hawke ) and Celine ( Julie Delpy ) , and the way they opened up to each other , offered something different. To follow the couple on their impulsive triggered stroll through Vienna and listen to their buzzword – laden but totally credible dialog, knowing that It Happened One Dodge, was equally enjoyable as painful. The film’s open ending divided the people into hopeless romantics and Generation X – cynic .

Nine years later, Linklater the impossible : to elaborate on Celine and Jesse’s love story first appeared as a bad joke for those who loved to fantasize about what really happened after the couple sued the reunion at the train rail where they once said goodbye . But ” Just a Day” was a brilliant sequel , filmed virtually in real time, with an exceptional sense of presence .

When “Before Midnight ” begins I get surprised that I feel a certain indifference to the new phase in the couple’s relationship. I’m glad to see them again , but not as fond of Linklater , Delpy and Hawke chose to depict them as unimaginative. As if we have not seen enough heterosexual middle-class couple who suffered relationship crisis on film.

But I am in love with this whole project that idea. “Before midnight” is not as consistent well done dialogue ( in individual scenes seem almost sketchy ) as the previous two films , the one that was decisive for this movie making. And the charge that previously existed between the actors have lost their force. Maybe it consciously. For the first time , I feel that Jesse and Celine’s common fate seems sealed. Despite an open end.

Anyone familiar with the films probably already know that all the seemingly impromptu talk is strictly written and rehearsed. Not least, it testifies to the thorough and effective at all levels enjoyable film it concerns .