R, 1 hr. 48 min.
Drama, Romance, Comedy
Directed By: Richard Linklater
Written By: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
In Theaters: May 24, 2013 Limited
Box Office:$3.2M
Drafthouse Recommends - Official Site
"Before Midnight" puts us in the same position with Jesse and Celine that they are in with each other. The romantic idealism has evaporated, and now we see them for who they are - real, deeply flawed, sometimes selfish people. Can we still love them?
The movie is a great romantic story because it bravely displays the downside of love in which two people can expose each other in the most personal fashion yet still remain committed.
Before Midnight is a beautiful reminder that a movie with nothing more than two people talking can have just as many explosions and fireworks as any high-tech summer blockbuster.
Before Midnight understands that when love falters it isn't with a bang but a long protracted sigh. It's a perceptive and humbling view of romance that debunks all notions of fairy tale endings.
"Before Midnight" presents a paradox: It's the best entry in director Richard Linklater's romantic trilogy, but it's also the first in the series that doesn't leave me dying to know what happens next.
It is immensely refreshing to meet again these two characters who we once (twice) learned to love, in a story that examines with the uttermost honesty the natural conflicts of married life, which are also present for this couple who seemed so suited for a happy ending together.
Before Midnight is a masterpiece. Plain and simple. It's the best film of this or any recent year, and it's also undoubtedly one of the most perceptive and insightful portrayals of middle age anxieties that I have seen in a very long time.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles as Jessie and Celine respectively. The budding romance of these two characters in Before Sunrise was a wonderfully unique tribute to young love. Nine years later, their brief real time conversation in Before Sunset reflected their fears and insecurities as they matured into adulthood. Now, in Before Midnight, with a family (or families) of their own, Jessie and Celine are still unsure about each other or about their aspirations for life.
Before Midnight is by far the funniest of the three films, but it is also the least optimistic. As the decades have passed, Jessie and Celine have grown older, but they are not that different from the twenty year old versions of themselves who met on that train in Vienna. Nevertheless, this is a beautifully written, directed, and acted stroke of film brilliance that adds that much more depth to this wonderful franchise.
