Review: Before Midnight

Watching each of Richard Linklater’s Before films feels like visiting old friends, perhaps even more so with his latest Before Midnight. Nine years have passed since we last visited Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) in Paris during Jesse’s book tour and the couple are now married and holidaying in Greece with their twin daughters. This isn’t necessarily a spoiler – these film can’t really be spoiled as the magic of them lies in the dialogue and how these beloved characters deal with their lives at each stage we visit them.

Where Before Midnight clearly differs from the previous two films is that Linklater allows Jesse and Celine interact with other people, both separately and together. Because of this, the film feels more relaxed and casual as they are not dealing with the constraints of time like in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset - they can afford to take their time.

Instead, they are dealing with the constraints of marriage and parenthood which addressed more directly in the second half when they take the night off at a hotel and end up bringing out the worst in each other. Gone are the romantic, hopeful fantasies found in Before Sunrise. Here we are able to see the cynicism and realism that living through previous failed relationships have cost the protagonists. They are mean to each other, insulting each other choices and ideas. “I fucked my whole life up because of your singing” Jesse tell her and we’re unsure whether or not that’s a declaration of love or an admission of bitterness. The second half, where it’s just the two of them talking, feels more natural, like old times, and yet it’s also uncomfortable to watch as they tear each other down.

Although Before Midnight isn’t my favourite of the three, it still feels so authentic and is really just perfect. It’s so strange to see Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke go from their baby-faced twenty-something selves in Before Sunrise, to a married greying couple but both actors are these characters and play the roles naturally. I hope that Linklater, Delpy and Hawke let us revisit these characters again in 2021.

Beth Johnston