Before Sunset (2004)
Starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy.
Directed by Richard Linklater.
Rated R.
Grade: A-
"If we didn't suffer, we wouldn't learn a thing."
Some Spoilers
The closing shots of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise are absolutely crushing, if youÕre in the right state of mind: its two protagonists, having made the connection of a lifetime, separate after an incredible night in Vienna with a vague and unlikely promise to meet again in five months; the film cycles through glimpses of the places they visited, before ending on a heart-shattering shot of Celine on the train, gazing sadly out the window and finally giving a pensive smile. Then the smile fades away, the screen fades to black, and I break into horrible tears. The possibility that Celine and Jesse may never see each other again is depressing, yes, but even if they do reunite, the fact remains that they are doomed to spend months or years apart, doing different things with different people, wondering what the other is doing at that moment, spending entire days thinking of nothing else. It's a horrible fate, and while others may have found the movie stirringly romantic, it left me melancholy almost to the point of depression. Isn't it better not to fall in love at all than to fall in love with a person who disappears indefinitely?
They do reunite, though, nine years later, in Paris. This is the premise of Before Sunset, the structurally identical but tonally quite different sequel to the 1995 arthouse hit. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) has written a book loosely based on the first film's magical Vienna encounter, and is on a European book tour, where Celine catches up to him. As she observes the interviews from a corner of the bookstore, we are treated to a few brief, silent flashbacks to nine years ago. He has manifestly aged, though she is still pretty much the same bright, beautiful creature that Jesse once spotted on a train.
The two have the rest of the day to spend together before Jesse has to catch a plane out of France. They head to a coffee shop and try to rekindle the magic of nine years ago. It's not quite the same. "Come on, I'm KIDDING!" Jesse constantly reminds Celine when his sarcasm goes over her head, or seems to. Uncomfortable topics dominate -- whether the world is recovering or going to hell, whether or not living in America must mean owning a gun; they cannot even seem to agree on whether their first meeting led to sex. Their conversation is still lively, but it is no longer the carefree banter of two lovestruck young people who can only relish each other's company. "Memory is a wonderful thing if we don't have to deal with the past," one of them opines, and that's relevant: their previous encounter is a bright shining light in their respective memories, but it also has implications that must be addressed, directly or indirectly. There's a history here now, symbolized, among other things, by Jesse's new book, and it hangs over them like it must over any two people who aren't meeting for the first time. The world is no longer their oyster.
There are hints of Lost in Translation. We learn that Jesse is married with children; we learn that it is not the happiest of unions. Something is missing; some intangible element that eats at his soul whenever he looks at his wife and kids. Can Celine fill that void, or would a lasting relationship with her only exacerbate the emptiness? In Before Sunrise, the two of them discussed whether or not meaningful relationships could be entirely ephemeral; they decided that at the very least they shouldn't be, and arranged to meet again. But what's the lesson here? Are Jesse and Celine soul mates who are meant to be together? Is that the reason for Jesse's fundamental discontent in his marriage? Or is the implication that relationships can live only in memory, that a real, continuing romance is bound to end badly one way or another? After all, can anyone doubt that the night in Vienna is the most meaningful of their lives, or that the memory of it does more for them than any "real" relationship they had before or since?
Before Sunset doesn't answer any of these questions. Ending on a note every bit as ambiguous as its predecessor, if considerably more upbeat, it leaves you wondering whether there is any way Jesse and Celine can ever find lasting happiness, be it together or apart. There is no way for them to ever recreate their Vienna fling. The real question is whether they should bother trying.