Review of Before Sunset (2004) by Grant S — 08 Nov 2014

Great movie, and more substantial than Before Sunrise.

I thought Before Sunrise was okay, but overrated. It was pretty much another romantic drama. Better than most in that it has more depth of characters, has a fairly unique and beautiful setting, and direction and plot are more subtle and original than most. On the down side, it was very dialogue-intensive and some of the dialogue is just incredibly pretentious, navel-gazing stuff.

Before Sunset is still very dialogue-intensive. This is still an irritation in that you want some respite from this, some period of reflection and calm. However, in this case it does propel the story forward, unlike Before Sunrise where the dialogue seemed to go in circles and not really go anywhere.

That is where Before Sunset is so much better. By setting it nine years after the first movie, you get a a more complete story, more character development, more a sense of what they mean to each other, more genuine emotion.

For these reasons, making this sequel is a stroke of genius on Richard Linklater's part. Instead of a snapshot of these two people's lives, we have a timeline, a sense of lives progressing and changing, of memories and regrets. Not ships passing in the night (as the first movie made them out to be), but soulmates.