Gautam Anand
The question of whether someone is your true love is, in many ways, redundant because there is no conceivable way of answering it with certainty. More often than not, the very idea of falling in love with someone is based on the assumption that he or she might be your true love—until, of course, you are proven wrong. Therefore, the more interesting question is not who your true love is, but what love itself really means to you. What is love, if not an extension of the desire and longing to be with someone you consider perfect—or at least close to perfect? In other words, perhaps there is no single “one” true love or soul mate. But every time you deeply desire to be with someone you believe could be “the one,” you are in love.
Jesse and Celine once spent a perfect night together in Vienna before separating and then longing for each other for nine years. When they finally meet again in Paris, that is where ‘Before Sunset’ begins.
Jesse (Ethan Hawke) has come to Paris to promote his new book. As fate would have it, Celine walks into the bookstore where he is appearing. Later, we realize that their reunion is perhaps less the work of fate than of design, as Jesse confesses that he wrote the book partly in the hope that it might somehow lead him back to her.
Jesse and Celine then spend the next hour together—Jesse has a flight to catch—simply walking and talking. Their conversation begins with the environment, veers toward relationships, and eventually turns inward, toward their own lives and feelings. They approach personal territory delicately. At first, they speak politely and in abstractions, circling around the questions that both they and we desperately want answered: Is either of them married? Are they happy? Do they still feel that deep attraction toward each other?
As their conversation progresses, we learn that Jesse got married, while Celine has been in several relationships, none of which worked out. Eventually, both experience a kind of emotional breakdown as they confront the possibility that they missed out on a lifetime they might have been meant to spend together.
In one of the film’s most poignant moments, Celine reaches out to touch Jesse and then pulls her hand back before he can see her. It is a tiny gesture, but it says more than pages of dialogue could. Later, they arrive at Celine’s apartment, where the film’s final—and perhaps most touching—moments unfold. Celine picks up her guitar and sings one of her own songs while Jesse simply watches her.
The open-ended climax is also one of the most fascinating aspects of the film. It leaves you with the uneasy question: what happens next? But it also leaves the canvas blank, allowing you to paint whatever future you want for Jesse and Celine. Does Jesse board his plane and return to his wife and child? Or do he and Celine decide that this is their second chance and stay together?
The choice is left to you.
Of course, ‘Before Midnight’ eventually answers that question, though I have always felt that doing so takes away some of the pleasure of not knowing.
It is easy to mistake ‘Before Sunset’ for just another romantic film. The truth is that it talks about love in a way very few romantic films do. For Jesse and Celine, love is serious business, not merely some pleasure-seeking fantasy. In fact, more than love itself, ‘Before Sunset’ is interested in everything that surrounds love—life, memory, regret, responsibility, timing, and obligation. It is about how the choices we make in life shape the choices we make in love, and vice versa.
Yet, as complex as those ideas may sound, the greatest strength of ‘Before Sunset’ is its simplicity.
As in its predecessor, ‘Before Sunrise’, the entire focus is on conversation. Richard Linklater is so committed to Jesse and Celine that he doesn’t even bother turning Paris into a postcard. Despite shooting the entire film in one of the most visually iconic cities in the world, he rarely draws attention to landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower. Most likely, he simply doesn’t want anything to distract us from the two people at the center of the film.
‘Before Sunrise’ is equally beautiful, though perhaps less thought-provoking, while ‘Before Midnight’ is funnier, more grounded, and more mature, but also less emotionally affecting. Ultimately, ‘Before Sunset’ is about how a desire you never pursued can slowly turn into regret.
And that is what makes the film so powerful.
‘Before Sunset’ is such a masterful work because it functions almost like a mirror. By looking into it, you inevitably begin examining your own relationships. Where did you go wrong? Who was actually “the one” for you? What opportunities did you miss? What could have been?
In that sense, ‘Before Sunset’ is an understated masterpiece—a film that achieves extraordinary emotional depth without ever seeming to try too hard. It is one of those rare films where your own experiences in life can enrich and nourish your experience of the film itself. The more you have loved, lost, regretted, or wondered about the road not taken, the more the film seems to reveal itself to you.
So experience it, if you haven’t already.
Rating: 5/5
