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Before Sunrise

Before Sunrise image
Parent Issue
Month
February
Year
1995
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
Rights Held By
Agenda Publications
OCR Text

[1995. Directed by Richard Linklater. Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. Columbia Pictures. 115mins.]

Watching Richard Linklater's directorial and writing transitions unfold through these last half-dozen years has been an interesting exercise because of the direction his work has taken. When Slacker was released In 1991, he was clearly emulating the minimalist style of Jim Jarmusch. Yet 1993's Dazed and Confused seemed to mark a personal step backward in its attempt to reconcile off-beat comedy with a hazy adolescent preoccupation with drugs. Before Sunrise seems to further confirm that Slacker's abandon might have been a once-only phenomenon.

Before Sunrise is not a bad film. It is, rather, a low-key film. It also confirms that Linklater doesn't really have much to say and what he does have to say isn't particularly interesting. The loopy efflorescence of Slacker has now degenerated into an attempt to pseudo-philosophize the dilemmas of today's "generation-x," but the shallowness of Linklater's limited experience makes the effort seem scarcely worth the attention.

Imagine being in a restaurant and overhearing the conversation of a young couple in the next booth. This is basically what happens in Before Sunrise. There's nothing offensive about the dialogue, but the odds are no one would want to hang around and eavesdrop for slightly less than two hours. American, Jesse (Ethan Hawke), is riding a train into Vienna to catch a plane back home when he meets Celine (Julie Delpy) in his coach. After striking up a casual conversation, he asks her to miss her connect on to Paris to spend one night with him. She implausibly agrees and they share the next 16 hours wandering about before settling in a park for the morning. With sunrise they must part, but not before learning the depth of their feelings for each other.

This is a plot-line as slight as a gossamer and it occasionally takes flight as such. But more often than not, it never takes off at all.

Linklater's (and co-screenwriter, Kim Keizan's) script shackles Jesse and Celine with dialogue that is dangerously close to being inarticulate. It's hard to believe love and romance could sound on the verge of being so boring; but then again, when the most you have to offer is childhood memories, the narrative's not going to be stretched to its limit.

Likewise, the film's direction isn't as much spirited as merely competent. Whether by accident or design, there's such a relaxed flow to these lovers' mating, they scarcely rise above their material. Delpy manages to etch a casual characterization, but Hawke presses relentlessly through his performance.

Perhaps someone of Erich Rohmer's persuasion might have woven a feature-length Idyll out of the subtle dialogue required to weave loving ideas out of thin air. But the atmosphere in Linklater's screenplay isn't as much rarefied as it's nearly vacant. As a result, the young couple of Befaoe Sunrise go through a series of vaguely Interesting transitions - they play pinball; run across Linklater's patented oddballs; and conjecture on the depressing prospects of their impending midlife crises - but share nothing of sufficient magnitude on their special night to credibly evince genuine passion between them. When Linklater needs it most, there's no poignant romance In the air.

The film, however, is not a failure. This would be much too harsh a judgment. For in its modest way, it's indeed a slacker's fantasy. And when compared to the latest series of Hollywood debacles, Before Sunrise is well above average by comparison.

Yet motion pictures are rarely praised for their technical proficiency. We generally expect inspiration to do the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, Linklater's deliberate laid-back anecdotal approach doesn't work for him this time around.

Jesse and Celine turn out to be a couple of nice kids. Perhaps a little callow, but then that's what life is for. Still, there has to be a little more zip to a movie than merely two hours of niceness.

When this boy and girl tenderly face each other at the end of their adventures to take a "snapshot" of each other for their memories, we're left with another photographic dilemma in mind. If Before Sunrise was a home movie, we'd be asleep on the couch. 

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