Before Sunrise (1995)
1995
R
105 Minutes
A dialogue marathon of a film, this fairytale love story of an American boy and French girl. During a day and a night together in Vienna their two hearts collide.
User Review
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WHAT I LIKED: In Richard Linklater's 'Before Sunrise,' an American man (Ethan Hawke) strikes up a conversation with a French woman (Julie Deply) on a train and asks her to get off and wander around Vienna with him before his plane leaves the next morning. She agrees, and over night they develop one of the most wonderful and earnest romantic connections I've ever seen on screen. But the time limit on their relationship soon brings into question whether they might decide to pursue their spark further, or whether they're happy for the night to simply remain a memory. That makes it a film about whether our experiences and relationships need to be all about permanence (as most stories tell us), or whether something momentary is just as valid.
To unpack this, over the course of many honest conversations, they compare their whirlwind of joy with the experiences of often unhappy or dishonest long-term couples like their parents or their own past experiences. They talk about the conflict they feel between settling down and devoting their lives to giving love and care versus their desires to pursue greatness or freedom. They talk about the things they'd probably end up hating about each other if they were to make a go of things together. And they even openly agree that their spark is only so intense because it exists in isolation from everyday mundanity. They're happy reveling in that, but they're equally pained by the thought of not seeing each other, so they ultimately take a chance on the promise of a similar visit in 6 months' time.
Mostly though, the film is about the miraculousness and preciousness of their transient night together, and that's a pretty profound thing for a story to be about (and an especially unusual thing for a romance film). The value to their lives is felt between their nuanced glances, their shared laughs, their small personality clashes, and their magnetic attraction to each other, and the fact it may only be a fleeting thing doesn't make it any less beautiful. And that's made all the more powerful as Linklater lingers perfectly on their faces and body language, and Hawke and Deply do an incredible job bringing their respective characters to life.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: For what it does, it's a hard film to fault.
VERDICT: Richard Linklater's 'Before Sunrise,' portrays one wonderful night of romance, and poignantly suggests that a thing isn't beautiful just because it lasts.0 member like this review.
