BEFORE SUNRISE. Directed by Richard Linklater; written by Richard Linklater and Kim French Krizan; produced by Anne Walker-McBay for Castle Rock. Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Rated PG- 13.
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It would be embarrassingly easy to pan a movie with such a silly premise as Before Sunrise. But its stars are so appealing, both singularly and together, so natural in their interaction and, for the most part, so witty in their in their verbal exchanges, that I liked it in spite of myself.
But about that premise. It involves an at-loose-ends Generation-X couple (who apparently have no need to work for a living) who spend a summer night strolling around Vienna and having alternately deep and coy conversations. He's catching a plane for the States in the morning, she a train for Paris, so they know their relationship can never progress. Or can it?
This couple has to carry the entire movie, with very little action other than basic movement and very little interaction with any other people. So for Before Sunrise to work at all these characters have to work. And they do, beautifully. Hawke, as the American Jesse, has always been an attractive screen presence and is as charming as ever here. Delpy, as Celine, is a casually gorgeous newcomer who is just as appealing.
One of the problems with the movie is that, given Jesse and Celine's obvious chemistry and appeal, you can't help spending the whole movie wondering how it will end. Will they really just part company? Make plans to meet that we are afraid they won't keep? One head off with the other instead of in their planned direction? It's this constant pull to look ahead that gives the story the only originality and drive that it has. But it's also fairly distracting.
Now, in the interests of truth-in-reviewing, I'm not in the target audience for this movie, not by along shot (well, 20 years or so, anyway). And though it is the ultimate "date movie," I did not see it with one (my husband would not becaught dead at a "relationships" movie like this.) But I can remember what being 25 was like well enough, I think, to appreciate the attraction of a story like this. It's goofy, but seductive.
And if you can let yourself be seduced by the youth and romance of it, I think you'll be glad you did.
February 15, 1995