(Originally written January 2, 2007)

Before Sunset is, in many ways, the Casablanca of the 21st century. Both films portray two characters that fall in love in Paris, are separated, and run into each other many years later. Both films dig up memories both painful and beautiful for each of the characters involved. Ethan Hawke plays Jesse who has written a book about the romantic night he spent with a woman he met in France. He happens to meet this person, Celine, in Paris when he is signing books. The rest of the film features these two characters talking and finding out what has happened in each other’s lives in the nine years since the last time they saw each other. One would think that a movie of two people simply talking would be suffocating, but it is a moving film. The script is practically flawless, beautifully written yet realistic in every detail—the little sarcastic comments one makes with a former lover, the unexpected outpourings of honesty, and the reoccurring inside jokes. These are two characters who frequently laugh at each other’s comments not necessarily because the comments are funny but because the characters are obviously so lost in each other.

Perhaps the most beautiful detail in this film is when Jesse explains the frustrations of being married, and Celine reaches out to him to caress his head but moves her hand away without him ever noticing. This is a film about two characters who genuinely experienced romance with each other and have failed to achieve the same type of love in the nine years since they first met. The film is an affirmation of two characters who have wondered whether it was the naivety of youth that brought them together for the one night, but, older and wiser, they look back realizing they were genuinely in love. It’s about two characters attempting to reach out to each other without exactly knowing what to do.

The city of Paris is absolutely beautiful in the film, setting the tone and atmosphere. The film will focus in on these two characters conversing for an extended period of time and will cut to a beautifully-liberating shot of their surroundings. It’s not necessarily a romance as much as a deeply thoughtful movie about two characters who are trying to define what romance really is. It’s a film of brutal honesty; there are the moments where they begin to confront each other about the details, including an argument over whether or not they had sex the night they last met. It investigates the insecurities of the characters in way that gives them a sense of individuality. This film is essential for anyone who has ever had a relationship fade and wonder about what could have been.