OVP: Before Sunset (2004)

Film: Before Sunset (2004)
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Director: Richard Linklater
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Adapted Screenplay)-I can't figure out what's adapted about this, but I'm so pleased that a film this small and flawless got nominated for an Oscar I won't even begin to complain
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Sequels are supposed to be terrible-we all know it.  It's why we so rightfully treasure something like The Godfather, Part II or Empire Strikes Back or The Two Towers.  They are the rare films that manage to, if not necessarily equal their predecessor or overtake it, at least deserve to be in the same sentence as them.  They're films that we're proud to have stand next to our beloved first film in our film libraries and our cinematic hearts.

(Spoilers Ahead) The thing about these films is, though, that they don't do something that the first film did-they don't surprise us.  They don't challenge us in the same way because we know what's going to happen.  They don't completely change their tone, they don't completely change their message.  This was what I found so stunning about Before Sunset.  It wasn't that it was somehow just as good as its predecessor (dare I say it-it might even be better?!?).  It's that it managed to find just as rich of a tapestry to paint from, and showed new and raw emotions from its lead actors that we hadn't seen before.  It didn't remain content to stay in the new, breathtaking shadow of the first film's romance.  It gives us the hard edge that comes with our decisions.

The film starts with Jesse (Hawke) in a Parisian bookstore, talking to a combination of fans and press about a novel that he has written.  Unlike the people in the bookshop, we know that the book he has written is in fact based on his life, and his first (last?) night with Celine.  What we don't know, and what Linklater winks at us with, is what happened next.  Because romantic dramas oddly never have sequels, we know we're about to get the answers to happily ever after, and sure enough, while he doesn't answer the fan in the bookshop, we see Celine standing in the corner and we know we'll be privy to their life in the nine years since we last met.

We quickly learn that they did not in fact meet in Vienna.  After initially lying about going, we find that Jesse did fly to Vienna, but Celine wasn't there.  She had missed their meeting because of the sudden death of her grandmother, and because they didn't exchange last names or numbers and there was no Facebook yet, they couldn't meet again.  They quickly fall into their same habits, discussing the state of the world and literature and sex and their love lives.

The film takes a harsh turn as we continue to learn more about their lives, though.  While nothing is ever as it seems, we find both of their lives terribly broken.  In their early thirties, both are coming to terms with the lessened expectations that come with experience.  They have started to get nostalgic about their youth in a way that is less celebrating it and more about rethinking and yearning for it; I kept thinking of Ian McEwan's flawless On Chesil Beach during these scenes, which is a high compliment as it's one of my favorite books.  Jesse is in a marriage that he's simply staying in so that he can spend more time with his son and Celine has troubles with intimacy and has secretly blamed Jesse for it for so many years.

You can feel this in that incredible scene with Delpy and Hawke in the car, where she says the things she's been thinking for years in her head.  How she hadn't realized how much she'd been half-living her life until she read Jesse's book, and how she thought so many times about that night.  And we learn Jesse has felt the same way-how he gave up on romance when she didn't show up on the train station in Vienna, and how he settled for his wife.  It's the sort of thing that on paper rings of movie romance cliche, but with these two capable actors, and after sixty minutes of nonstop conversation and heartbreaking banter, you feel the pressure of the words.  Perhaps this is because you can feel in the scene how much higher the stakes are than they were nine years earlier.  They were just kids when they met in that opening movie, now they've grown.  They know how hollow and empty and cruel loneliness can feel, and they know that nights like that of Before Sunset are not going to come around very often, perhaps ever again.  This meeting is a fate occurrence, and you see that in the way Jesse, so determined, and Celine, so hopeful, keep making excuses to spend just a few minutes more together.  By the time they reach Celine's apartment, and Nina Simone's "Just in Time" starts to play, you slowly realize that the last film didn't have a happy ending, but this one surely will.  "Baby, you are gonna miss that plane," she says, to which he replies "I know."  And the credits role on this short little miracle, and once again, we've fallen in love.