Krishna
Look, I went to see this blind. What does that mean? Let me explain. This is supposed to be the sequel to Before Sunrise where the two protagonists (Jesse and Celine) met and fell into a one night stand which was really love and they did not understand it then. That movie ended with a question mark on whether he will find her in Vienna in six months as she promised. He waits in in the designated spot in Vienna, and the movie ends with no answer to that question. But I did not see that movie. If you see this movie without seeing the first one (never mind my question : ‘Why would you want to see either?’ which is implied in my review below) you would not miss the previous story. They make it abundantly clear like in game shows (In a ‘Previously on BIG BROTHER….’ sort of way).
The cute thing is that this is a sequel that happens nine years after the events in that movie and they have made this precisely nine years after that movie, and with the same lead pair. (Ethan Hawke as Jesse and Julie Delphy) so there is no need to age them through make up. They have naturally aged to the right age!
I should admit that I was captivated in the first 10 minutes. He has written a book about his experiences and is signing off books and a reading in a book store in Paris where she drops in unexpectedly. Then they catch up on all that happened in nine years since they parted. Of course, they have to reveal that she did not come to Vienna. In the meantime, he has married, has children and has moved on with his life. Or has he?
Quickly it turns into just conversations about their lives, their interests, her house, her tea making and finally what happened and why she did not come to Vienna that day. Only half way through the movie you realize that, probably just like the first one, there is no great story and this is simply dancing around an incident that happened in their lives; yes, romantic, no doubt; yes, left a deep impression in their mind, surely. And yes, that probably was love, though neither can face it and say so, even after nine years.
But how much can you drag this ruminant mastication without boring the audience? Not surely as long as they have done in this movie. Also, they leave it in a yawn inducing uncertainty : Will they throw everything (he is married and she did not marry so there is not that much to throw away for her) and get together again? We will never know because after another 9 years after this movie was made (2013 it would have been) there was no sequel. Perhaps they had finally figured out that making touchy feely movies with no story in it is not a winning proposition.
The story? Really, there is nothing. They walk through a café, near his car, through a Paris marker, to her apartment and she entertains him with a guitar. Satisfied?
Unless you are a sucker for meaningless sentimentality, you can skip this movie safely.
2/10
– – Krishna