BEFORE MIDNIGHT - Review

Before Midnight

Romantic Comedy/Drama, 2013
1 hour 40 minutes
Written by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy
Directed by Richard Linklater

"I don't ogle girls, I make a-love to them with my eyes."

I'm not big on romantic movies. They all seem to usually follow one of several preset formulas that have been recycled for years and years. In my mind, only a few romance movies change up the game. That's why I liked Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, the first two movies in this trilogy. For those who don't know, Sunrise is set somewhere in Europe (that I'm too lazy to look up) in which Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) meet on a train. They hop off the train and shit happens between them and they talk a bunch then they part ways. Sunset takes place 9 years later somewhere else in Europe (Italy, I think? Or France...) and the two of them meet again. Much like the first, they talk a lot about their matured lives and etc etc okay now onto the new one.
So Before Midnight takes place another 9 years after Sunset and 18 years after Sunrise. Jesse and Celine have two children together and live in Europe. Jesse's 14 year old son from his previous marriage has just spent the summer with them in Greece, and we see him depart for home in the opening scene. Jesse is close as he can try to be with his son, but still longs to be with him more than just a couple of times a year.
At this point in the relationship between Jesse and Celine, we get the understanding that things have been going pretty well for them. Not a lot of issues between them...until tonight. The two spend the first act of the movie with some friends in Greece in which they sit around a table and talk with people about relationship stuff, how they met, sex, kids, etc etc. The second act is more like a short bridge between just Jesse and Celine, and then the third act comes around in which the two of them duke it out. It's so well written and so genuine that I wouldn't be surprised if it wins an Oscar for Original Screenplay. It's just that good. And this is like, the last 30 minutes of the movie, it's all straight talking. The performances are solid and, again, holy shit the writing is amazing. It's brutal and honest, and its so refreshing to see these characters doing something other than just being romantic with one another. Believe me, this movie doesn't have as much romance as you might think it does. And yeah, it runs a little long at times, but thats only in that bridging middle between the first and second acts.
Overall, Before Midnight is best seen after the first two films, otherwise, it means nothing. It's also the best of the three by a HUGE margin. It's definitely one of the best movies of the year.

9.7/10