Review of Before Midnight (2013) by Alex G — 11 Nov 2014

Mixed feelings about this movie, the third of Richard Linklater's trilogy.

The trilogy started in 1995 with Before Sunrise, continued in 2004 with Before Sunset and now, another nine years later, we have Before Midnight. The movies follow the lives and love of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), with the span in years between movies reflecting the spans in their lives. We are getting snapshots of their lives, at nine-year intervals.

Before Sunrise was OK, but not great. Really a dressed-up romantic drama, just with a more realistic and original plot and more subtle direction than your average romance movie.

Before Sunset was the pick of the bunch. Rather than just a snapshot, it relates, through their dialogue, all the happenings in the last nine years of their lives, and demonstrates how much each of them were key in the other's life. It had more of a complete story and more character development.

Before Midnight now picks up with them together, with their two kids, holidaying in Greece. Like the first two, it is very dialogue-intensive. Like the first two (especially Before Sunrise) the dialogue can be a big negative at times: pretentious, navel-gazing stuff.

However, on the plus side, we get to see how relationships end up. Romantic dramas tend to end with the couple walking off into the sunset, very much in love, blissfully happy and without a care in the world. They never cover all the unromantic, even irritating, stuff that comes after it: kids, domestic life, mundanity. This does.

On the downside, there is a reason this is never covered: it's boring, even annoying. Who wants to see a bitter, very protracted argument between husband and wife? Or people discussing domestic stuff?

Thus, a two-edged sword.

So, kudos to Richard Linklater for the concept of these movies and for not shying away from the less glamorous domestic years in a relationship. However, the domestic years aren't very entertaining to watch...