"...When love can come as a complete surprise "

Before Sunrise (1995): 7/10

Poster (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Romance is basically dead in movies. We get romantic comedies, but those usually involve calling people the wrong name in bed. But epic romances a la Gone with the Wind are basically, um, gone with the wind. That is, before Richard Linklater came along. I'm not calling his Before Sunrise an epic romance by any means, but it's a nice, small romance that actually has believable characters in a believable circumstance. You can't really get that from a recent "romance". What Linklater (and co-writer Kim Krizan) create is an engaging love story that, unfortunately, has never heard of "too much of a good thing".

Taking a train through Europe, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) starts talking with Celine (Julie Delpy). He convinces her to get off of the train in Vienna to spend his last European night with him. They wander around the town, talking about life, the universe, and everything, as the clock winds down, because Jesse has to catch a plane.

Before Sunset, the sequel to Sunrise, has basically the same format. The conversations in both are very interesting and entertaining, but I'd say that Sunrise's conversations were more varied. Some were more interesting, some were less interesting, and some were mediocre. But it's the conversations that make both Befores such great movies. They let you get inside of the characters, realize what they're thinking and how much like real people they are. And not only is the dialogue entertaining, but it's thought-provoking and all natural. It all seems ad libbed, which it isn't, which finalizes the humanity and the true-to-life qualities of these people.

But where the second one succeeded, the first one failed. The second came in at a quick 80 minutes, which was 80 minutes of dialogue shown in real time, creating a very intimate bond between the audience and the characters. In Sunrise, it's not in real time (which is okay, but not up to par with the sequel), which allowed unnecessary establishing shots to be put in. But what was the worst about this movie was its inability to end. Instead of doing something like the short 'n sweet 80 minutes of the second film, after 80 minutes is up, Sunrise isn't over yet! You've had enough of these characters and you want the movie to end (in a good way), but the movie keeps on chugging along. It goes on for 20 more minutes, and it doesn't even have a successful climax. That's the worst part of the film-it keeps on going and going, but it really overstays its welcome and becomes too repetitive towards the end. Obviously, you should see this movie before the sequel, but I think it's safe to say that Sunset is the better movie overall.

Rated R for language.

Review Date: August 11, 2004