Before Sunrise

If you stop and think about this thing we experience called life, it’s not much more than a set of non extravagant circumstances that can be separated into segments of what ifs. What if you hadn’t decided to apply for the job you are in the midst of a career in now? What if you turned the other way when that friend for life asked you your name? And then there’s the one Before Sunrise explores. What if, in a fit of spontaneity, you decided to temporarily abandon plans to go home in order to spend an entire day with a woman you just met? This question is pondered upon within the course of Before Sunrise’s 100 minute running time. All of which add up to a movie that doesn’t use sub plots involving exes. Nor is there any music to tell the audience how to feel. It relies on the sole power of stars Hawke and Delpy to convey their emotions through sharply written dialogue and fits of uncomfortable circumstances turned into romantic ones. The result is a film that displays more romanticism within the course of Celine and Jesse’s one day together than most Hollywood fare convey using standard storytelling techniques and bigger stars...[more]...