Before Midnight- Film Review

This is the third one in the series of offbeat films, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset being the first two. My admiration grew for all the people associated with the movie. There are few films in which the hero and heroine are both involved in the script. This is one of those- along with director Richard Linklater, they are in good form. Like the two earlier films, this is centred around conversations between the hero and heroine.

In this one, one of the long conversations/fights starts during lovemaking. Surprising? Well, they are married in this one, and many interesting things happen when two people are married. The fights, as I always maintained, are some of those interesting things. And the film tries to prove me right.

The difference is that there is also a great conversation around a Greek dining table (they are visiting a Greek writer and his family), which is extremely stimulating, in which three generations discuss the man-woman romantic relationship and its possible future (or no future).

All in all, I loved the heroine (Julie Delpy), and the hero (Ethan Hawke), and the movie, in that order. A fitting finale.

Before Sunset- The Sequel

This of course, is the sequel to the film called Before Sunrise that is a saga of two young, lost souls who remain lost after a one-night interlude in Austria, reviewed earlier. The same two people meet ten years later, again for just a short while. The guy (American) has written a book based on his experience of that night disguised as fiction. The lady (French) happens to read it, and appears at his book reading in Paris.

What follows is a couple of hours of conversation, about their lives, the environment, and a few other things. They understand that they have possibly lost an opportunity to fall in love, but then, that could be the result of fate, at least according to her. They also discuss what is happiness, and marriage, and after an attempt at blaming each other, fall into a state of awareness of their own dissatisfaction at how things have turned out, and make peace with each other.

The concept is terrific, the acting original, and both characters are very believable. The film is endearing, and I would recommend it to anyone, lost souls included.