Before Midnight

Cast of Characters:

Jesse Wallace - Ethan Hawke

Celine - Julie Delpy

Director - Richard Linklater

Screenplay - Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke

Rated R for sexual content/nudity and language

      Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy pair up once again for a third time in Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater's Before Midnight.

      Nine years after the events that took place in Before Sunset (eighteen for Before Sunrise), Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) are now a couple and parents to twin girls conceived when they got together for the second time. Jesse is also struggling to maintain his relationship with his teenage son Hank, who lives in Chicago with Jesse's ex-wife. At the beginning of the film, after spending the summer with Jesse and Celine on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, Hank is being dropped off at the airport to fly home. Jesse has continued to find success as a novelist, while Celine is at a career crossroads, considering a job in the government.

      After dropping Hank off at the airport, the couple discuss their worries about Hank having a healthy childhood and Celine deciding what to do with her career. Jesse, feeling he dropped the ball on being a good father, would like to be more present in Hank's life. This creates somewhat of a dilemma for both Jesse and Celine as she would rather further her career than consider moving back to the States. They soon return to the house of their Greek friend Patrick. Over dinner they discuss ideas about love and life, and the other people staying with them buy Jesse and Celine a hotel room for that night so they can have some time alone. While walking to the hotel, the couple reminisce about how they met and how their lives have changed since then.

      I was hoping to see this when it first came out, but once again Celebration Cinema nearby, in their infinite wisdom, felt if they're gonna show an Ethan Hawke movie, it should be The Purge. This movie like its predecessors Before Sunrise and Before Sunset is comprised of a series of long, single-shot takes driven by dialogue. It's always a risky move to go that route and there are only a handful of screenwriters capable of pulling it off. Quentin Tarantino and David Mamet are two that come to mind. Richard Linklater is another. The dialogue here is so fresh and genuine and natural it just draws you in and never lets go. Like the two films before it, which I loved, I sat there in front of the screen, completely engaged with every second that passed by. If finding it fascinating watching two people talk through one extended, single shot doesn't show you the strength of the writing, I don't know what else will. Two scenes in particular really stood out to me. One was Jesse and Celine surrounded by their friends eating dinner at the table. Two were an elderly couple, four were two middle-aged couples (of which Jesse and Celine were one), and the last two were a young couple. The scene is just one long, beautifully written moment with each of the three generations offering their own unique perspective on love and relationships. The second, and this is a bit of a spoiler, is an argument that happens later on in the film between Jesse and Celine concerning Jesse's son and whether or not they should move back to the States to be closer to Hank. There are certain argument scenes you see in some movies where it just feels contrived or forced or emotionally manipulative. Here it's such a genuinely powerful argument that seems so real, and by now, since it's the third film, we've (that is, if you've seen the past two films) become so involved with these characters that we feel a natural care about what happens to them and whether or not they stay together. It's moving, sad and even funny at times. Isn't that how arguments go in real life anyway?

      This, in my opinion, is the best of the "Before" trilogy, and the way it ends is the perfect dose of heart and humor. The weight of time and age has started to show on Jesse and Celine. Although at times they show signs of the young, ambitious, early twenty-somethings they once were, their characters, along with the story, have matured and grown older over the past eighteen years. The writing clearly reflects that. We see it in Jesse and Celine's expressions and hear it in their dialogue. If you haven't seen the first two, I strongly recommend renting them before seeing this, particularly since the story gets stronger and stronger as it moves along each film. It's always a joy for me to be able to see a film that's solely about the characters and dialogue. This film excels at both and is not only one of the year's best, it also earns my highest grade. I give Before Midnight an A+ (★★★★).