Before Sunset

Nine months ago, I watched and very much enjoyed the 1995 film Before Sunset. This is its sequel, made (and presumably set) nine years later with the same two actors playing the same two characters. And it works very well as a follow-up to the original. The characters are older, wiser, and more mature now, and as such, so are their conversations. But by the same token, it doesn't quite capture the perfect "strangers as soul mates" feeling that the first movie provided way back a while ago. These people are still young, for sure (probably in their early to mid-thirties) but with a handful of life experiences behind them now, they're also just a little more cynical and jaded. Both are in serious relationships (one is married with a child) but neither are very happy. Both eventually admit to being unable to stop thinking about each other since the fateful night nine years ago when they first met. This movie unfolds in real time and is only eighty minutes long; the two leads, after nine years apart, do a very convincing job in picking up right where they left off initially, but also in slowly letting their guards down over the course of their very brief reunion. There's also an ambiguous ending. The man must catch a flight to go back home, but it isn't clear if he does so or does not. (Just as the last movie ended with a question about whether they would or wouldn't meet again.) Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy helped write all of their dialogue in this film and both have said they'd be open to revisiting this pair of characters in the future. I think that'd be very interesting. If another sequel came out every ten years or so to revisit these characters and where their lives have brought them, I'd keep tuning in. Of course, at a certain point they'd either have to hook up for an extended period of time or agree to stop seeing each other once every decade or so. Maybe the hypothetical next movie finds the pair married and completely unhappy with each other. I dunno. All in all I was pretty happy with this movie. It expanded upon the story that originated in 1995 without trying to outdo that original one night stand. I suppose I prefer Sunrise to Sunset, but maybe only because the former movie can stand alone while this movie kind of requires some familiarity with the original in order to get the full effect. Regardless, the movie backlog is back down below ten, and the goal is to keep it there.