My first encounter with Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) was when I stumbled onto Before Sunset in 2004 without having seen Before Sunrise. I was 27-years-old, and in trying to think back, I wish I could recall what I was thinking and felt as Sunset started to play. What I do remember is by the time it was over I was fully within the film’s embrace. In only a matter of 80 minutes director/co-writer Richard Linklater and co-writers/stars Hawke and Delpy had me in the palm of their hands, and have yet to loosen their grip nine years later.
Watching Before Sunrise after seeing Sunset and now having seen Before Midnight, I realize there is a perfect time for all of us to step into Celine and Jesse’s lives and a selection of three films with which to begin the journey. Determining which of the three to start with is up to you, but for me I’m not sure their story would mean as much had I not met them exactly when I did. For this reason I feel strange reviewing Before Midnight as merely a movie, or at least I don’t want to treat it as one.
There’s a level of honesty this franchise tapped into with Sunrise, elevated in Sunset and has mastered once again with Midnight. With nine years not only separating the films, but separating the stories they tell, you’d think we’d feel lost entering Celine and Jesse’s lives as randomly as we do, but with each visit it takes only a brief moment to reacquaint ourselves and again become wrapped up in our care and concern for how their lives play out.
After first meeting on a train bound for Vienna in 1995, Before Sunrise left Celine and Jesse believing they would reunite only six months later. Come 2004 we find their reunion never happened. While Jesse returned to the Vienna train station where they promised they would meet, Celine couldn’t make the trip. Eight years passed and the potential for a life together would seem to have been missed.
Before Sunset begins with Jesse, now a bestselling author, married with a child and living in New York on a book tour in Paris. Celine, on the other hand, is on her own and working for Green Cross. A chance encounter at a Paris bookstore results in the two spending the day together, telling stories of their lives as they walk around the city.
The film ends in Celine’s apartment with Jesse watching her dance to Nina Simone’s “Just in Time” as she says, “Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.” Jesse laughs, “I know,” and the film fades to black. A better ending I can’t imagine and I was more than content to have it end there and nervous at the prospects of a third film.
For many (myself included), the question of whether Jesse decides to stay with Celine and miss his plane back to his wife and kid was the question they weren’t certain they wanted answered. What would that say about him if he stayed? If he was so willing to throwaway his marriage and risk his relationship with his young son? Isn’t it better not knowing than to ruin the illusion of this perfect love affair between two people we’ve become so invested in?
We ask these questions because we know the answer and don’t want to face the consequences. We want to eat our cake and have it to! But life doesn’t work that way and neither do these films, which are unafraid to not only ask, but answer, the tough questions and we love them all the more for it.
But the beauty of these films is less in the answers, and more in how they’re revealed. Sequels, the way we think of them, largely pick up immediately where the last one left off. Audiences not only want answers they want to know the whole story. Well, Linklater, Hawke and Delpy are willing to give you that, but not entirely how you expect it.
Nine years once again separate us from the last film and in those nine years Celine and Jesse’s lives have carried on. It’s not a spoiler to tell you Jesse did stay in Paris, did divorce his wife and did move to France to be with Celine. They have been together ever since and have two lovely young daughters.
On vacation in Greece, the story begins as Jesse says goodbye to his son (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) as he’s flying back to his mother in Chicago. It’s a brief scene, but it gives us all the information necessary. We continue to catch up with Celine and Jesse during a lengthy car ride back to where they are staying, making for plenty of time for conversation, giving us a good idea not only of what they’ve been up to for the past few years, but what’s in store for the rest of the film.
Like Sunrise and Sunset, this is a film of limited locations, loaded with dialogue and an appreciation for chewing the scenery. The conversations between the two is as authentic as it’s ever been, but the focus has changed and it’s what makes Midnight work.
Gone are the days of Celine and Jesse’s courtship. They’re together now and Midnight takes aim at focusing on just how hard it is to make a relationship work. The ups and downs of day-to-day life, living with decisions we’ve made and again finding love in that one person you’ve chosen to share your life with.
Midnight is loaded with firsts for this franchise, firsts I won’t spoil here as they are best realized on your own. Suffice to say, don’t expect more of the same, but do expect a film as honest about love as it ever has been, even when it seemed too good to be true.
I could go on and on, skirting the edges of spoilers, but I don’t think this is a film that can be ruined by spoiling the narrative. It’s raw and real nature is certainly a draw, but it’s a draw that inspires an emotional reaction. These are films that alter my mood and I loved Before Midnight because, of the three films in this franchise, it’s the one that manages to capture virtually every aspect of an adult relationship. Even for our favorite couple, love isn’t perfect, but it’s the little imperfections that make it that much more memorable.
