Before Sunset
Review by Zachary Keith Parker
Celine (Delpy) and Jesse (Hawke) embrace on the streets of Paris discussing how their lives have changed since Before Sunrise. In Before Sunset, Linklater directs Jesse's and Celine's previous naive love story into a mature exploration of themes dealing with commitment, suffering, and love.
Nine years after Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) first met in Before Sunrise, we get to see the two ex-lovers providentially meet again in Before Sunset, one of the most rewarding sequels ever made, especially in comparison to the witless, mindless sequels of recent years.
In early 2004, Jesse ends up in Paris at a book signing for his novel about two lovers, which seem to parallel his past relationship with Celine. Jesse intends to board a plane in a couple of hours to go back to the US, to his wife, and to his son. At the bookshop, he sees Julie Delpy's soft-eyed Celine, unmarried and working with an environmental protection group. Celine invites him for a coffee at a nearby café, and for the next hour or so, we see their conversation develop in real time as they walk around the somewhat quiet streets of Paris.
As the characters take a stroll, writer and director Richard Linklater carefully shows us a matured and experienced couple. Both Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy contributed their writing (and acting) skills to make Jesse and Celine respectively gain the viewer’s sympathy through their true-to-life situations and concerns. Besides their potential affair, Jesse and Celine discuss other issues, ranging from politics to writing to raising kids.
Both relate stories of events in the past and present, which have some surface connection to the topic at hand. However, after a while, one begins to realize each is relating stories that convey their personal concerns: the principles behind each story relate to the central theme of picking up or abandoning their adultery.
Jesse is now married with children, and Celine is single, all of which adds an ethical dimension to their discussion. On the other hand, their opinions on what and how their marriages do not work give clear warnings to the viewer upon the same subject.
Linklater secures the viewer's sympathy for Jesse and Celine, but he does so out of his own love of the characters. Linklater draws the audience in, portraying the characters with real-life sincerity, as Jesse and Celine weigh the concerns and consequences of revitalizing their adulterous affair.
As the Bible describes it, sexual relationship binds two bodies into one: “Or do you knot know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh’” (1 Cor. 6:16). Thus the audience clearly sees the effect of their intimate relationship in Before Sunrise.
Their separation has negatively affected their careers, their marriages, their families, and the like. How can one body be separated? It cannot live; it will die. Then the viewer recognizes the compelling reality that Jesse and Celine want to live.
Their discussions ultimately find expression in Jesse’s comment: “Life's hard. It's supposed to be. If we didn't suffer, we'd never learn anything.” This view of life shares tones of a biblical understanding of sanctification, refusing to despair in life's complications and our own errors.
Before Sunset is Linklater’s most mature work yet. I highly recommend Before Sunset as a morally and cinematically rewarding movie, even after multiple viewings. It invites us to ponder and live vicariously through Jesse and Celine. At the heart of their relationship, Linklater poses a significant moral dilemma for our consideration.