You want to cry. Just cry. I’m roughly Ethan Hawke’s age. I don’t care that he now looks like he’s 70. I could totally identify with the guy in Before Sunrise who picked up a dish on a train 20 years ago and spent the night of his life. They part. It happens. She has her life; he has his. It wasn’t meant to be? But what if it was? What if they could solve their overseas romance issues? And thus we got Before Sunset, where Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) decide a decade later to carve out a life together. The romance didn’t have to end. And ten years later, it’s clear we should have left this couple in the neverending romance stage. You just want to cry.
Jesse and Celine now have twin girls and live in Paris, but this is the end of their summer in Greece. Jesse also has a teenage son by an unseen American woman he divorced years ago. “Unseen woman” is a great foil. You can always attribute whatever convenient characteristic you need to a person who never says a word or makes an appearance. Jesse thinks his boy could use some guidance. He hints at moving to Chicago. Celine objects. The conversation is 
awkward. Celine has trumped a soft sell with a firm “no.” Jesse protests that he was only testing the waters. Celine is sharp enough to know his game, but lacks the subtlety needed to finesse the situation to her advantage. And the whole time, I’m thinking, “who the f*** cares?! Are you two still in love or not?”
This is precisely the point, of course. Jesse and Celine are no longer in love and are just amiable enough to sidestep the issues in front of them … for about 75-80 minutes. This is a talking film in the grand tradition of My Dinner with Andre. It could well have been a play; I counted two, maybe three changes of setting and no action to speak of, unless you count the scene in which Delpy undresses from the waist up and goes from sexy-hot to angry-hot in a span of about ten minutes. I applaud the very brave acting from Delpy here. Honestly, if there’s something more depressing than a naked woman going from sexy to uninterested I’m not sure I know what it is. Schindler’s List?! Screw that! This, my friend, is tragedy.
I loved Before Midnight for not cheating us. Jesse and Celine have real problems just as all couples do. And yet, I hated it because I loved the fantasy that I could be Jesse and have that perfect love forever. Hence, I can’t really recommend this film to anybody. You want to spend two hours hearing a couple dance around their issues and then finally have it out? You want to remember a beautiful love affair completely untarnished? Go read Shakespeare. Before Midnight is like Romeo & Juliet surviving their play but not surviving their marriage. Are tragedies best left tragic? Does time doom all romance? Maybe. When you think about making a fourth, maybe you can just refrain from ruining my 2022.
Before Sunrise, they fell in love
Romance between some average Joes
Before Sunset, they met again
And decided not to resist their throes
Middle age finds the pair again
Not very far from being foes
At the point where we’re at now
Is just before my patience goes
Rated R, 109 Minutes
D: Richard Linklater
W: Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke
Genre: The tragedy of middle age
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Know-it-alls who predicted failure
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Did you love Before Sunrise?
