Movie Reviews

I definitely give credit to filmmaker Richard Linklater for trying to be different. He's the man responsible for such diverse films as Dazed and Confused, the uniquely-animated Waking Life, , the 'filmed play' Tape, and the family comedy School of Rock.

Before Sunrise is just as unique with its simple setup: two strangers named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet on a train in Vienna. After starting to get to know one another on the train, they decide to spend the evening together in Vienna, before Jesse has to catch his train early the next morning. The entire film is, essentially, two people talking -- getting to know one another in the space of a single evening, telling stories about themselves, telling jokes, sharing philosophies, and ultimately falling in love with one another (though how 'deep' this love actually is could be questionable, considering they only end up spending about a dozen hours together).

I had a hard time really getting into the film. The dialogue between these two strangers is so realistic that it was a little jarring hearing it in a movie. The fact that Jessie and Celine spoke and flirted with one another in ways that real people speak and flirt with one another is daring and admirable on the part of Linklater and co-writer Kim Krazen, but it's also one of the reasons I didn't really 'tune in' to what they were saying. I think people get into situations where they meet someone and engage in seemingly-deep conversation with that person mainly because they enjoy their company, oblivious to the fact that, to an outsider, the conversation is really just meaningless banter (and I'm not trying to berate these situations; in fact, I think it's often the case that simply being with the other person is more of a communication than whatever words are passing between them).

So having said that, I felt like an outsider eavesdropping on a developing relationship. Before Sunrise is a great attempt at unique filmmaking, but I wasn't able to feel the connection that Jessie and Celine were obviously developing. Instead, all I could do was listen to their fairly meaningless talk.