Movie review: Before Midnight

MOVIE REVIEW: For those late to the sublime Before movie series, no need to panic. Here's the catch-up intel.

Before Midnight

MOVIE REVIEW: For those late to the sublime Before movie series, no need to panic. Here's the catch-up intel.

In 1995's Before Sunrise, two young tourists, Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke), meet while in transit. They spend some fleeting, oh-so-romantic hours together, then go their separate ways. Sigh.

In 2004's Before Sunset, the pair cross paths once more in Paris. That star-crossed bond is resealed. Double sigh.

If you love movies about love, made with intelligence, insight and a refreshing candour, Before Sunset and Sunrise are the places you must go.

In Before Midnight filmmaker Richard Linklater has reached another peak for his series.

Celine and Jesse are a couple. True love happened. But real life is happening. Time is no longer a precious commodity. The intensity of their love has changed, as has the depth. There are children to raise. Expectations to lower. Careers to follow. Grudges to leave behind. Promises to break. Compromises to make.

As in the earlier films, Celine (still an environmental activist) and Jesse (an author of some repute) are all too ready to talk us through their feelings.

The Before Midnight experience - which unfolds across 12 hours on a family holiday in Greece - captures an authentic snapshot of a modern relationship.

The rapport shared by Delpy and Hawke (who co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater) is the key to the film's success.

Their spirited interplay appears all too easy, but is capable of transmitting some difficult signals when the going gets rough for Celine and Jesse.

Triple sigh.

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BEFORE MIDNIGHT [MA]
Rating: 4/5
Director: Richard Linklater (Bernie)
Starring: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
"Everything all right on the night"