Calm before the storm

It’s been eighteen years since Jesse and Celine first met on that train heading to Vienna and it’s been nine years since Jesse missed that flight.  Richard Linklater’s trilogy of Before films capture that magical moment of meeting, connecting and falling in love with someone on an honest, real and relatable level that is always hard to find in romantic movies. Normally set over a short few hours they have become a real case study into the workings of relationships, communication and ideals. On paper and in theory they shouldn’t work, the films comprise of one hundred or so minutes of conversation. Long shots of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delphy) spouting dialogue that feels more like a stream of consciousness than a script, but this is where the films soar. The chemistry between the two leads is something that doesn’t come around all too often and the performances suck the viewer in rather than exclude them. And thankfully for all fans of the franchise, Before Midnight stays true to its predecessors and is a brilliant third act to the play about these two lovebirds.
 

 Without giving too much away the story picks up nine years after that faithful day in Paris, where we see Jesse and Celine enjoying, or maybe not, a holiday in Greece.  The banter is as strong as ever and the chemistry still sizzles between Delphy and Hawke. There are a few more age lines, on the leads faces and on the relationship but the dialogue is just as smart, intelligent, witty and truthful as it was all those years ago. Most franchises would sink into oblivion now in days if nine years were spaced between their follow ups but with this trilogy it just helps cement the realistic tone, while standing as a testament to the impact these two characters have had on people’s consciousness.

More brutal in its approach than Before Sunrise and Sunset, Before Midnight is almost uncomfortable to watch in certain parts which is definitely proof of its triumph. Conversations seem familiar and all too well performed by the leads. As realistic yet magical as it’s predecessors Before Midnight isn’t the ill-fated third chapter cinemagoers are so used to now in days. Jesse and Celine still have some bark left in them, and maybe even some bite.

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