Before Sunset (2004)
Before Sunset arrives as the middle chapter of Richard Linklater's trilogy following two strangers whose paths cross briefly and, it turns out, unforgettably. If you've read our review of Before Sunrise, you'll already know the setup: in 1995, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) spend a single night wandering Vienna together before going their separate ways, with a vague promise to meet again six months later. Before Sunset picks up that thread nine years on, relocating to Paris and compressing an entire reunion into roughly the length of real time it takes to watch it. The film runs a trim eighty minutes, a structural choice that is either admirably disciplined or frustratingly slight depending on your patience for two people talking in circles around feelings they can barely name.
Linklater had been working steadily through the intervening decade since the first film, with pictures like Dazed and Confused and School of Rock demonstrating a consistent interest in character over plot and in the rhythms of people simply existing together on screen. Before Sunset, produced on a modest budget by Warner Independent Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment, extends that instinct to something almost radically stripped back. There are no significant supporting characters, no real plot mechanics to speak of, and very little in the way of incident. The screenplay, co-written by Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy themselves, draws on the genuine passage of time between the actors and their characters, blurring the line between performance and autobiography in ways that critics at the time found rather thrilling. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, an acknowledgement of just how seriously the industry chose to treat what is, when you boil it down, two people walking around Paris for an afternoon.
The principal cast is, for all practical purposes, just two people. Hawke, who had been building a reputation as a thoughtful, low-key performer across drama and independent film, brings a particular quality of held-back feeling to Jesse, a novelist doing the promotional rounds for a book that is very obviously about that one night in Vienna. Delpy, French by background and trained in European cinema before crossing over to American productions, brings a restless, verbally agile energy to Celine, who is living in Paris and working for an environmental organisation. The handful of other faces who appear, among them Vernon Dobtcheff as a bookshop guest and Louise Lemoine Torrès in a brief role, function more as texture than as characters in any meaningful sense. Paris itself does a fair amount of the heavy lifting visually, the city shot in a warm, naturalistic way that sits somewhere between a location documentary and a postcard.
I absolutely loathed the first film Before Sunrise. Watching two pretentious, wide-eyed twenty-somethings wander around Vienna, trying to extract deep philosophical meaning from every mundane encounter, was a complete chore. So, when Richard Linklater’s 2004 sequel Before Sunset rolled around, set nine years later, I went in with my arms firmly crossed, expecting more of the same.
I was fully expecting the same self-indulgent navel-gazing. But I’ll give credit where it’s due: this follow-up is undeniably a step up, primarily because Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) have actually grown up, and the script finally forces them to talk about each other rather than the majestic beauty of a stray dog or a homeless tramp.
However, the picture still suffers from a glaring issue that I just can't get past: the dialogue. I know the critical consensus hails these rapid-fire, intellectual exchanges as the pinnacle of "deep" cinematic conversation, but to me, it just feels incredibly unrealistic. It doesn't sound like a real conversation between two people who haven't seen each other in nearly a decade; it sounds like a highly polished, theatrical script written for actors who enjoy the sound of their own voices.
This is compounded by Julie Delpy’s delivery, which I found grating and entirely disconnected from the natural rhythm of human speech. Fair play to Ethan Hawke, though. He is genuinely believable and brings a heartfelt, grounded earnestness to Jesse that anchors the film, making his character infinitely more likable this time around (until the finale).
The dynamic between the two is where the film really starts to fracture for me. While I found myself actually rooting for Jesse and his quiet regrets, Celine comes across as remarkably self-centred. She dominates the conversations with a relentless, almost exhausting intensity, constantly steering the narrative back to her own grievances and worldview. They spend the runtime wandering the streets of Paris, which is visually lovely, but the emotional weight of their reunion is entirely unbalanced. You’re essentially watching a man try to politely handle a conversation with someone who is determined to make it entirely about herself, which makes the much-praised "chemistry" feel more like a one-sided interrogation.
Then there is the ending, which is arguably the film's biggest misstep. Linklater opts for an abrupt, unresolved conclusion that left me feeling deeply unsatisfied. Without giving away the exact final frame, the implication is that Jesse might miss his flight to stay in Paris with Celine. But let’s not forget the actual stakes here: the man has a wife and a young child back home. Framing this potential decision as some grand, romantic gesture just slaps of a staggering level of selfishness, and the film seems entirely blind to that moral ugliness. It’s a visually pleasing, occasionally engaging character study that is ultimately let down by its pretentious script and a deeply frustrating final act.
The completionist in me wants to watch Before Midnight. The rest of me is hoping to find other distractions.
Before Sunset sits in an interesting position within Linklater's body of work and within the broader conversation about what romantic cinema can and should do. The film attracted near-universal critical praise on release and remains a touchstone for a certain kind of cinephile who prizes conversation and atmosphere over conventional storytelling. That consensus, however, is not the same thing as universal appeal, and responses like the one above are a useful reminder that a film's reputation and a viewer's experience of it can sit some distance apart. Whether you find the Paris streets romantic or merely expensive, whether the dialogue lands as honest or as performance, will probably tell you a fair bit about whether you're the audience this film was made for. Some reunions, it turns out, are best left to those who were already in love with the first goodbye.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2004 | Watched: 2026-07-21
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Before Sunset (2004) on YouTube
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