There is a moment in Before Sunset where Ethan Hawke's Jesse tells Julie Delpy's Celine that he wrote a fictional version of their story where they rendezvous in Vienna and end up not liking each other. It appealed to her sense of realism. Indeed, she later touched on it again. Walking out of the theater I knew Before Midnight more or less answered that vital question.
Here we add nine freaking years to the previous 13 or so hours of their time together. So, understandably, Jesse and Celine are not as we left them. Bearing the increasingly heavy chains of life's complications, they still love to bat around ideas and make each other laugh. More importantly, they really want to understand each other and be understood.
For Jesse, seeing little of his son Hank (now 13 and played by Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is the unacceptable cost of being with Celine, mishandling his separation, and having a vindictive, dejected ex-wife. Desperately wanting to be consistently present in Hank's life, their latest farewell is the final straw. He and Celine had been in regular contact with Hank for two years in New York City, but Celine's very complicated pregnancy with twins (Ella and Nina, now 7-years-old and played by Jennifer and Charlotte Prior respectively) made it imperative that she be close to her mother in Paris.
Jesse obviously did the right thing by staying with Celine and he knows it, yet he shoulders the guilt of an absentee father and externalizes it. Celine, though not exactly an innocent bystander, is subjected to unfair manipulation. Generally quite reasonable as to the father/son question, she is, by my reading, unconsciously passive-aggressive about it. The unarguable fact is that a move to Chicago (where Hank presently lives with his mother) would amount to babysitting every other weekend for want of joint custody. As for Hank, he gets on well with Jesse, but there is a definite sense of detachment. He doesn't even look over his shoulder as he turns the corner out of sight at the airport.
Jesse is otherwise very good: he is leading the life of a successful writer (three books out and a fourth in the works) with Celine--the unquestionable love of his life--as his wife and a good mother to their twin daughters who are healthy (and of course dressed differently). He just somehow figured on Hank living with them. By thinking through his crisis aloud, Celine (no longer a closed book) says in a half-kidding way that it is the beginning of the end for them.
It is nice to see them interacting socially for the first time in the marvelous, detail-rich dinner scene. Everyone contributes more or less evenly as the conversation ranges from artificial intelligence to gender differences to various interesting perspectives on love and romance. The trio of Linklater, Hawke and Delpy pour themselves into making the absolute most of these naturalistic films, and it shines through palpably. It is interesting to learn that Hawke and Delpy wrote a lot of each other's dialogue. This happens to be the funniest of the three films, in my opinion. Great music again, too!
Celine, feeling disconnected from Jesse as to her own stresses, wants out of their planned night together, but irrevocable arrangements had been made on their behalf. Walking together as we had come to know them, their natural chemistry is evident in short order. Celine acknowledges this while remarking in a downplayed way that she doesn't feel the connection at times. Jesse responds in jest, unaware of it as a crisis that will soon converge with his own. They enter their hotel room feeling good about the whole shebang. Then Hank calls again and things gradually spiral downward into a serious case of love on the rocks for these well-meaning veritable soulmates in the southern Peloponnese of Greece.
Celine is more complicated than Jesse--who is not about to leave her and the girls for Hank in Chicago--and even less inclined to contentment in life. The professionally-minded activist with little in the way of a maternal instinct has been saddled with the aforementioned twins and is essentially trying to balance domestic mundanities with her environmental work in the ineffectual non-profit sector. She no longer finds time for music, her creative outlet. By contrast, Jesse to her mind takes his easygoing novelist life to the highfaluting hilt. Though wonderfully good-natured to be sure, envy continues to be a problem of hers. She respects his intelligence, but slights his work, and being the inspiration for his first two intimate novels does not sit well with her at all. She also feels every day of her 41 years and even accuses him of infidelity, as if only to clear the air.
The backfiring of a wind turbine project has her set on working for the government again despite doubts. Not knowing she considers it a "dream job" of sorts, Jesse rouses Celine's feminist spirit by suggesting she perhaps forgo the position for something in Chicago. Celine quotes someone in earnest: "Women explore for eternity in the vast garden of sacrifice." It took Jesse's out and out mockery of her innermost feminism to later warrant her saying she doesn't think she loves him anymore.
In the final scene we find Celine understandably despondent and Jesse appropriately self-reproachful. Employing a time travel fantasy reminiscent of that which convinced her to see Vienna with him 18 years before, he realizes his failure despite desirous efforts to understand her. By reconciling herself to him, Celine sees in his sincerity the very magic she spoke of in Vienna. It could not come full circle more wonderfully.
Their protracted relationship continues to be the very height of my cinematic experience, so it pleases me greatly to know that the door is being left wide open for a fourth film and hopefully more. Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke will know if it is right.
Here we add nine freaking years to the previous 13 or so hours of their time together. So, understandably, Jesse and Celine are not as we left them. Bearing the increasingly heavy chains of life's complications, they still love to bat around ideas and make each other laugh. More importantly, they really want to understand each other and be understood.
For Jesse, seeing little of his son Hank (now 13 and played by Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is the unacceptable cost of being with Celine, mishandling his separation, and having a vindictive, dejected ex-wife. Desperately wanting to be consistently present in Hank's life, their latest farewell is the final straw. He and Celine had been in regular contact with Hank for two years in New York City, but Celine's very complicated pregnancy with twins (Ella and Nina, now 7-years-old and played by Jennifer and Charlotte Prior respectively) made it imperative that she be close to her mother in Paris.
Jesse obviously did the right thing by staying with Celine and he knows it, yet he shoulders the guilt of an absentee father and externalizes it. Celine, though not exactly an innocent bystander, is subjected to unfair manipulation. Generally quite reasonable as to the father/son question, she is, by my reading, unconsciously passive-aggressive about it. The unarguable fact is that a move to Chicago (where Hank presently lives with his mother) would amount to babysitting every other weekend for want of joint custody. As for Hank, he gets on well with Jesse, but there is a definite sense of detachment. He doesn't even look over his shoulder as he turns the corner out of sight at the airport.
Jesse is otherwise very good: he is leading the life of a successful writer (three books out and a fourth in the works) with Celine--the unquestionable love of his life--as his wife and a good mother to their twin daughters who are healthy (and of course dressed differently). He just somehow figured on Hank living with them. By thinking through his crisis aloud, Celine (no longer a closed book) says in a half-kidding way that it is the beginning of the end for them.
It is nice to see them interacting socially for the first time in the marvelous, detail-rich dinner scene. Everyone contributes more or less evenly as the conversation ranges from artificial intelligence to gender differences to various interesting perspectives on love and romance. The trio of Linklater, Hawke and Delpy pour themselves into making the absolute most of these naturalistic films, and it shines through palpably. It is interesting to learn that Hawke and Delpy wrote a lot of each other's dialogue. This happens to be the funniest of the three films, in my opinion. Great music again, too!
Celine, feeling disconnected from Jesse as to her own stresses, wants out of their planned night together, but irrevocable arrangements had been made on their behalf. Walking together as we had come to know them, their natural chemistry is evident in short order. Celine acknowledges this while remarking in a downplayed way that she doesn't feel the connection at times. Jesse responds in jest, unaware of it as a crisis that will soon converge with his own. They enter their hotel room feeling good about the whole shebang. Then Hank calls again and things gradually spiral downward into a serious case of love on the rocks for these well-meaning veritable soulmates in the southern Peloponnese of Greece.
Celine is more complicated than Jesse--who is not about to leave her and the girls for Hank in Chicago--and even less inclined to contentment in life. The professionally-minded activist with little in the way of a maternal instinct has been saddled with the aforementioned twins and is essentially trying to balance domestic mundanities with her environmental work in the ineffectual non-profit sector. She no longer finds time for music, her creative outlet. By contrast, Jesse to her mind takes his easygoing novelist life to the highfaluting hilt. Though wonderfully good-natured to be sure, envy continues to be a problem of hers. She respects his intelligence, but slights his work, and being the inspiration for his first two intimate novels does not sit well with her at all. She also feels every day of her 41 years and even accuses him of infidelity, as if only to clear the air.
The backfiring of a wind turbine project has her set on working for the government again despite doubts. Not knowing she considers it a "dream job" of sorts, Jesse rouses Celine's feminist spirit by suggesting she perhaps forgo the position for something in Chicago. Celine quotes someone in earnest: "Women explore for eternity in the vast garden of sacrifice." It took Jesse's out and out mockery of her innermost feminism to later warrant her saying she doesn't think she loves him anymore.
In the final scene we find Celine understandably despondent and Jesse appropriately self-reproachful. Employing a time travel fantasy reminiscent of that which convinced her to see Vienna with him 18 years before, he realizes his failure despite desirous efforts to understand her. By reconciling herself to him, Celine sees in his sincerity the very magic she spoke of in Vienna. It could not come full circle more wonderfully.
Their protracted relationship continues to be the very height of my cinematic experience, so it pleases me greatly to know that the door is being left wide open for a fourth film and hopefully more. Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke will know if it is right.