Review of Before Sunset (2004) by Phillip D — 17 Feb 2015

Entirely mundane. That is probably the best description for Before Sunset. Although Linklater interjects brief moments of brilliance into the film, with the single shot concept and dialogue working relatively well, he is just a man playing with his toys.

Hawke is a disaster as an actor, with one of the most unlikable faces in Hollywood. His obvious salivation over Celine really undercuts the potential romance and ultimately, I just can't buy his sincerity.

The story is as bland as possible, an 80 minute walk that culminates in one of the more pathetic cliffhangers in movie history. If the characters choose to be together, then they cheat on their respective partners and Jesse abandons his son.

If they don't get together then we really did just waste 80 minutes of time. Either way, the movie provides no good options as it dawdles, with no soundtrack, towards an ending that is flat and inane beyond belief.

And that isn't even the most frustrating facet of this movie. What really irks me as a viewer is that Linklater is really just a pretentious asshole. The first scene is the perfect example, with Hawke as the indie writer philosophizing about romance with brief snippets of French to add to the hipster trash narrative.

I hate this attitude in film. It's lazy, pathetic and completely lacking in creativity, three things that make this director just as bad for movies as Michael Bay. It is this rising attitude among directors that they can produce a movie with one or two chic sounding gimmicks and then proceed to completely abandon anything else that is required to make a good movie.

Before Sunset is the epitome of this, featuring a few interesting concepts but failing in casting, score, tone, emotion and story. It is everything wrong with Hollywood.