'Before Midnight' . Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Directed by Richard Linklater.
In the last 20 years, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have taken us across Europe. In the mid-1990's, they met in Vienna in 'Before Sunrise'. Then ten years later they came together in Paris in 'Before Sunset'.
Now here they are, a middle aged couple with two very young blonde twin daughters. Delpy is the French-born Celine and Hawke is Jesse, the American novelist. Their six week stay in Greece's beautiful Pelopenesian area is just coming to an end.
Not everything's cool and calm with this unmarried couple. Jesse wants to move back to Chicago to be with his young son, the offspring of his first and only marriage. The blonde Celine is tired of being a novelist's wife and is in the process of changing her job.
'Before Midnight' moves from an airport to a lovely meal full of fine food, drink, and coversation, to the movie's finale, where a massive quarrel erupts between Jesse and Celine in a hotel room."The only upside at 35," Celine tells Jesse, " is that you don't get raped as much." This comes in the middle of Celine's feminist rant about keeping their relationship going which means she's doing all the important work. Jesse responds with his ego-driven take on the couple's dynamics.
Will Celine and Jesse pop up on sthe screen in another ten years and show us, under Richard Linklater's direction what getting near old age can do to a couple? Hard to know but one thing's clear: I won't probably be around to see this film.
'Before Midnight' gives us a personal drama in the midst of the beautiful Greek countryside. But where are the thousands and tens of thousands of Greeks, protesting the harsh austerity measures dealt out by the top honchos of the European Union? They don't make it into this flick.
'Before Midnight' offers us an escapist touristy version of Greece where the main fight explodes between a couple and has nothing to do with politics. I liked this film but I don't see it as anything more than a modern day fairytale, albeit as one with some very salty language.
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