Review of Before Midnight (2013) by Tufayl M — 09 Feb 2014

"We accept the love we think we deserve," said last year's terrific totally-not-another-teen movie "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". On the other side of that spectrum there's "Before Midnight", yet another 2013 movie I've thought about, wrestled with, has grown on me, decayed, sat with me in different ways. Is it or isn't it perfect, etc., etc. That's the mark of a truly great movie, the one you can't stop thinking about. In "Before Sunrise" Celine (Julie Deply) to Jesse (Ethan Hawke) was the French girl on the train he couldn't let get away. You felt for them. In the unlikely but even bigger and better sequel "Before Sunset" she was the girl we saw and wanted him to go back for. Now in "Before Midnight" she's the girl, we see early on, he didn't let go of. Hey, they couldn't just happen to meet again in Greece, could they?

And. Well. They do and they don't. The best thing about "Midnight", the most, I think AMBITIOUS thing about it (though people have argued to the opposite) is how it isn't very feel-good. Sure it has its highs and lows. Richard Linklater's camera is voyeuristic. "Before Midnight" is the first in the series to visit the ugly side of compromise, and yet doesn't shy away from its sometimes both temporary and eternal beauty. As Linklater hovers from close-ups to widescreens to finally pulling away and back, he shows that just because Jesse and Celine are struggling to settle it doesn't mean the movie has to. The strongest parts -- the masterful and oft-praised hotel room sequence, Jesse and Celine noting the end of a sunset's chronology, the final cafe scene, how each character addresses their still-existing relationship problems but in a public eye -- cut like a fucking diamond: hard.

Celine can be a flat-out bitch at points, is a complaint I've read. It's true. Maybe if they make a fourth that movie can lean more toward facing the issues Celine has with Jesse. That doesn't take away from the fact of the matter that "Before Midnight" is the ultimate entry in the trilogy, because it works as its own film for the uninitiated but mostly has a hugely bittersweet taste to those of us who often wonder where Jesse and Celine are today, how and what they're doing at a given moment. It's to the credit of Hawke and Delpy, who, without a doubt, give two of the absolute finest and most experienced performances of the year, fitting raw human nature into a couple who have themselves become characters. And just because it feels like it's improvised it runs so smoothly doesn't mean the shaky vulnerability and tightly wound perfection of the script should go unnoticed. Also there's Linklater, who stays true to Jesse and Celine's story by making the thing feel so damn cinematic. Whatever flaws "Before Midnight" has, they're the best kind: natural. Gentle and uninhibited. Because as this trilogy has proved, from sweet nothings come the most one has to say, about everything. (97/100).