Review of Before Midnight (2013) by Guido M — 29 Oct 2014

Seeing the trilogy in consecutive viewings makes this last entry in the romantic trilogy overall more affecting. The first two movies were sweet, whismical, almost magical romantic comedies. Before Midnight resembles more a real drama.

The couple has now done everything they talked about in the previous films: They got old, they got kids, and while on the first half of the movie it seems that the couple still has that witty, playful vibe, then the second half strikes in and we see what the years had done to the couple that met on a train on Viena 18 years before. It is not as depressing as it sounds, however. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy still manages to string some laughs, along with the highly clever dialogue, and Linklater still is king (With the help of his two tremendous actors, in their best performances yet) at doing these really long scenes that feel improvised and spontaneous. The trilogy closes, again, magically in Before Midnight. It's a solid film, if at times dour, but it still is uplifting feeling how we growed with this characters.