CowjammaWheezee Review of Before Midnight

Before Midnight (2013)

Great movie, I think some people missed the point

[8/10 · 14 June 2015]

I was reading through the reviews and I can't help but wonder how people can call themselves fans of the "Before" movie series but pan this one. This one brings us full circle, brings a bit of closure to the story, if you will. The first movie was about two young people meeting for the first time and having ideas, however far fetched and dumb they might have been, about the world and how love works, etc. But we loved it because people like the idea of love at first sight, meeting your soul mate, and what have you. The second one, well, come on, of course we wondered whatever happened to them. (By the way, Giantpanther, you claim to be a fan but you said they were to meet a year later and it was actually 6 months, but who pays that close attention to the details of a movie, right? A fan, perhaps?) I think people are missing the point with this installment. Life isn't peaches and cream. These two had an instant connection, but they lost touch because they were young and silly. But then they found one another again years later and wanted to make it work so badly, that they re-connected and got back together, with him moving to Europe and raising their kids, which you find out at the beginning of this movie. But the reality is that the more complex the people, especially with equally complex lives, the better the chance that their relationship might have been or might be a complete sham. I think they both hated the idea so much of being apart, that they got back together for being together's sake. But now they argue like every couple ever, and doubt themselves and their partner. Truth is Celine never saw herself settling down and being a housewife and mother, and she was imagining that that was exactly the path she was going to take by Jesse asking her to consider moving to the U.S. And due to this, she acted irrationally throughout the rest of the movie. Big life changing decisions impact relationships...no big mystery there. I loved this one, I thought it was well done and much wittier than Before Sunset, even though in some respects this one was more somber. Kudos to Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy for keeping it real.