Review: 'Before Midnight' continues honest, real love story
Posted Friday, August 2, 2013 at 4:55 PM Central
Last updated Friday, August 2, 2013 at 4:57 PM Central
Before Midnight is a third installment in a trilogy that has been almost 20 years in the making. The first movie, Before Sunrise was released in 1995. The follow up, Before Sunset was released in 2004. Now 9 years later they deliver us Before Midnight.
These movies have an almost cult-like following, which is somewhat unusual for the romance genre. All three movies are extremely dialogue heavy, they do not follow any of the typical formulas of a romantic movie, and although there is a genuine spark and chemistry between the characters, you aren’t quite sure if they will end up together or not.
So how does a romantic movie that doesn’t deliver a climactic rush from a passionate kiss in a rainstorm after a heartfelt confession make you want to watch it over and over again? Because instead of delivering a scene we can only dream of, they deliver emotions and expose a love that can actually be attained.
If you haven’t seen them, let me catch you up... SPOILERS AHEAD. If you have, enjoy the recap.
Before Sunrise was our first introduction to Jesse (played by Ethan Hawke) and Celine (played by Julie Delpy). Our young couple met by chance on a train in Europe. Jesse convinces her to leave the train with him and from there they peruse Vienna and through almost poetic conversation fall in love. The movie ends with Jesse having to catch his plane and they painfully leave each other without exchanging any information.
However, they do promise to meet again in a year. We are left with the same aching feeling of the young lovers in the film as it ends without a clear resolution as to whether they will ever meet again.
Our longing hearts were finally quenched when Before Sunset was released 9 years later. We see that Jesse has written a book about their magical night, and Celine has shown up at a book signing long after the day of their original meeting date. We were crushed when Jesse reveals that he did, in fact show up on that day, only to find that Celine was nowhere to be found.
She revealed regretfully that her grandmother had passed away, and their meeting date was the date of her funeral. Just as we start to get upset with her for ruining all of our crumby dreams, Jesse reveals that he is now married with a 4-year-old child. We start to accept that things didn’t work out, and decide to enjoy catching up with them as they walk through Paris until Jesse’s flight.
After a day sharing regrets of a lost love, we can feel them surrendering to each other through furtive glances as they walk up the staircase to her apartment. The last lines of the movie:
Celine: “Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.” Jesse: “I know.”
Here we are again, 9 years later, with Before Midnight. Jesse and Celine are now married with twin daughters. The first scene is somewhat of a gut punch when we see Jesse saying goodbye to his now 12-year-old son who had been visiting them in Greece from his home in Chicago.
When Jesse expresses how he wishes he could be closer to him now that he is at a sensitive age, Celine quickly reads in to it and won’t have him make her feel guilty for not moving near his son whose mother won’t let him see them but every other weekend anyhow. Hence we start a long and almost uncomfortable car ride as we see that life and marriage and the mundaneness of daily life has taken a toll on our couple.
At this point in the movie, you can almost hear everyone start to squirm in his or her seat a little bit. It’s that same feeling you get when you witness a couple bickering back and forth, and you want to quietly back out of the room.
Right when you start to question whether they should’ve married in the first place, they have a little laugh and a kiss and you are reminded what a great couple they are. Later, as they casually chat during a lovely dinner with friends, you get the sense that our couple has lost their way a bit. You start to wonder if they are going to be able to get back on track, as the conversations move more and more towards the passive aggressive.
After dinner, as they walk through the streets of Greece to a hotel for a childfree evening, you can feel how they are struggling to find their passion for each other. You can see they want to make the night special, but are almost too tired to make the effort. You also get the sense that they are a bit skeptical of each other’s love.
When they get to the hotel, we are greeted with the sincerest effort to start the night off with a respectful shot of passion, but an impromptu interruption turns it instead in to a passionate fight, and we are again left squirming as all of their resentments and skepticism come intensely flowing out of them in full force. Just when we think they might follow suit of so many marriages in these times and end it all, we see that they love each other enough to swallow their pride, forgive, and try work through it. Although the movie ends with a healthy dose of hope, a small part of you isn’t sure if they will actually make it.
I believe the reason this movie/trilogy is so successful and has captivated so many is not only because of the realness of these characters, but the chemistry between the actors. Unlike any other romantic trilogy I can think of, they really capture not only different stages of love, but also of life. These movies are about the ups and downs of what it truly means to share your life with someone.
Sunrise represents that naivety we have before we are married and settled in to our occupation, and are ruled by emotions and passions and the possibilities of life.
Sunset is all about what happens when we are faced with the realities of love, occupations, and realize how possibilities dwindle when you lock in to such things.
Midnight gets us right when we are getting scared to settle. Right when we are looking back at the choices we’ve made and questioning them, knowing all along it’s too late to change anything, and this is going to be your life.
Before Midnight might be a little too “real” for someone wanting an over-the-top love story. Some people watch movies to escape, and crave that rush of the perfect happily ever after ending. But you never know, at some point in your life, you may end up at the latter end of a break-up/make-up session that may lead to you some heartfelt confessions.
It might even end with a passionate kiss, and if you are lucky, it might even be raining. Whatever the scenario, you have to go through some passionate downs to get there.
If you need to get caught up, you can get the DVD of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset in one set here.