Movie Friday: Before Midnight

I saw several interesting films this summer, but the first one to highlight should be Richard Linklater's Before Midnight.  This is the third (and last?) film in the series that includes Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.  All three concern the principal characters Jesse (a somewhat callow and annoying American writer) and Celine (a high-strung Frenchwoman working for an NGO).  The first has them meeting-cute as 20-somethings on a train and spontaneously deciding to spend the night wandering around Vienna.  The second occurs nine years later, when Jesse has had success as a writer (mining his actual experience with Celine for many of the details) and is visiting Paris for a reading.  Married with a young kid, he nonetheless realizes that it is Celine with whom he should be spending his life, and by the end of that film it is clear that this is exactly what he is going to do, regardless of the consequences.

Before Midnight takes up the story after another nine year gap, and now they are together with young twin daughters of their own.  In the space of one afternoon and evening, we see them slide from playful bantering and harmless bickering to an intense and bitter argument about the sacrifices and compromises they have made for each other (or are apparently contemplating asking for).  This is painful to watch and listen to, but it is utterly real.  Moreover, because you have invested so much into these two characters, it is absorbing even when you are squirming with discomfort.  Although things are left uncertain, I predict that these two will not be able to stay apart:  they absolutely need each other as foils for their various dramas, and inspirations for their accomplishments.  But their togetherness will be punctuated with many trenchant discussions, some of them intensely painful.

I'm not sure how to summarize what Linklater accomplished with these three films, but they are truly a singular accomplishment, with fantastic writing and direction, and amazingly honest performances from the two leads.  And all the while, wrestling with deep ideas and highly personal dilemmas.  I recommend all three without reservation, but I think perhaps the third may be the best of all.

Here is the trailer: