Review Rewind: 'Before Sunrise'

The Movie: "Before Sunrise"

The Year: 1995

The People: Ethan Hawke as the suave, philosophical American man, Jesse. Julie Delpy as the inviting, equally-philosophical Frenchwoman, Céline. Richard Linklater as a fourth-time director.

The Non-Revealing Plot: Céline and Jesse meet on a train out of Budapest. Following a lengthy conversation with numerous ideas shared between the two, Jesse invites Céline to get off with him at his destination, Vienna, instead of her initial destination, Paris. She agrees, and they spend the day together, falling in love (or however close to “in love” two can be with each other after one day).

Unofficial Genre: The film best fits under the romance genre. It does not contain many dramatic moments and relies mostly on conversation and dialogue as means of advancing the protagonists’ relationship rather than on action.

My Opinion (Emotional): The main draw of the film is the protagonists’ relationship. Sadly, Jesse has many unlikable moments that turned me off from him. Maybe this was intentional — to show that people are not perfect — or maybe he’s a product of his time, but in the end I was not convinced by Jesse and his intentions, which sucks because I see Ethan Hawke as a great actor. Céline is an incredible character, which is so refreshing and unique to a genre that often belittles its female characters. Because of the disparity in my feelings towards the two, I didn’t feel emotionally satisfied or invested in their relationship.

My Opinion (Technical): The technical aspects of the film are more impressive than the emotional ones. Running at 101 minutes, the movie does not waste a single one. Nearly every moment is filled with dialogue that isn’t afraid to be wrong, weird, confusing or pseudo-intellectual; its only concern is being true to life, and it succeeds. The majority of the film is comprised of long takes and two shots, both techniques emphasizing the centrality of dialogue. While I found this method of camerawork to coincide well with the focus of the film, it detracted from Vienna’s place in the story as a romantic European setting. Linklater must’ve known this too, as he compensated for the lack of the setting’s influence by throwing in side characters meant to add a sense of European romanticism so integral to other similarly located stories. Unfortunately, these side characters feel artificial in their actions — a bartender willingly gives Jesse a full bottle of wine for no reason, and a random man on the street writes them a surprisingly eloquent poem in a matter of seconds. The poem was actually written by poet David Jewell. All these side plots contribute to the theme of romance, but they create an apparent disconnect from the dialogue.

Overall Rating: While I appreciate Linklater’s vision for a novel type of romance film, most aspects of the film are lacking in some form or another. However, due to its uniqueness within its genre, the movie is greater than the sum of its parts, and it's still worth viewing. I’d give it a 6/10.

If You Like This, You’ll Also Like: I have not seen a single movie like it, so I’d check out the rest of the "Before" Trilogy.