Goose Egg Marathon Film #21
Before Sunrise
(1996, Richard Linklater)
"No delusions, no projections, let just make tonight great"This is not a 2000s film, so... why review it as part of my GooseEgg marathon? Simply because I am including the sequel
Before Sunset at the end of the marathon. I took pixote's advice and made these bookends.
So, I'd actually seen part of this before, back when it first came out. I fell asleep about 20 minutes in and woke up towards the end. I asked my wife if anything had happened and she replied "not really, they've just been talking the whole time". All I had remembered from the early going was convesations by two priveleged white young adults whining about their life and parents and making sweeping generalizations about relationships and human nature. MEH. Had no interest in ever filling in the blanks or revisiting.
But due to the overwhelming recommendations of my brethren here I decided to give it another try. I have to admit, the early going was a tug of war between my refusing to connect with the characters and enjoy this in any way and the film's absolute refusal to give up at completely winning me over. About the time our young couple kissed in the ferris wheel I lost the battle. This is a gem. A real gem. I totally missed the point the first time around.
First, I love how gutsy this is: a film about two people talking. The conversations are genuine. These are conversations that only 20 somethings can have: a strange mix of worldliness, "new knowledge" and odd insecurity. It all comes out. I'm doing that thing where you try to anticipate the response to every line and I'm surprised over and over again at how perfect it is.
Watching this is like getting to read Richard Linklater's personal blog posts for a month - with thoughts on such universal themes such as gender differences to such sweet, naive profundities like "we're each 1/50000 of a soul". As a younger man I took those to be pretencious - but now I look back with nostalgia about having these kinds of endless idealistic devil-may-care conversations with friends - the ones that fall away as the weight of a life filled with diapers and mortgage payments make it just an effort to keep your head above water.
The first time I watched this Ethan Hawke came off as smarmy. This time I came out thinking - wow he played that perfect: so guarded in the early going trying to impress but coming off as awkward and unsure. But as the film goes on the outside layers evaporate as the two of them realize they have absolutely nothing to lose in trying to be their purest self - even if they're just not so sure what that purest self is?
Quick story: my wife and I are watching this together. After that poetry scene, the Hawk character dismisses the ad hoc creativity as some kinda fill-in-the-blank gimmickery. My wife and I look at each other with these knowing glances. She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. We didn't even have to say anything. It's a dozen or so perfect little things like this that is the subtle genius of this film.
I'm a bit short on giving this a A+ grade and I'm not sure why. Can't quite put my finger on it. But I am really glad y'all pushed me to watch this, and in particular to wait until later to see the sequel. I think watching it 19 film from now will give me enough time to miss these character.
Sorry no more screenshots. I watched it on IFC.
Verdict:
A precious, sweet and disarming little gem. Can't wait to watch the sequel
Grade: A