Ever wondered what happened to Rick and Ilsa (you know, when they ran into each other again on the Champs Elysees in August 1944 as Paris was liberated); Laura and Alec (London 1945: she pouring tea for the troops; he enlisted and in line for a cup); Hepburn’s Princess Ann and Peck’s Joe Bradley (passing on a hotel staircase at, oh, how about the King of the Belgian’s 1960 wedding). There’s no Casablanca 2, Brief Encounter 2, or Roman Holiday 2, let alone third installments, but there is the Before… trilogy, and it gives some idea of what might have happened had there been.
In Before Sunrise (1995), two characters meet and talk and fall in love. Nine years later in Before Sunset (2004), their dialog is given another dimension as they talk about later stages of relationship. Now Before Midnight (2013) takes us deeper by showing as well as talking, and in so doing, develops a dime-a-dozen romance into something altogether rarer: an actual foray into romantic consequences.
In the first two films, for all of Celine and Jesse’s originality and realism, the story arcs were boy meets girl. This latest installment moves way beyond that, while remaining as plausible, as riveting, and as rewarding as ever.
--Julian
I watched the film on a plane recently, and liked it until the last scene. Up until then it was a great depiction of the way long married couples, when things aren't going well, interact with each other. The last bit, with Ethan Hawke doing that obnoxious schtick to win his wife back--and it works!--was entirely fake and had the effect of reducing what had come before to a prelude to a . . . dime-a-dozen romance.
Posted by: Only a Blockhead | 10/31/2013 at 08:58 AM