Before Sunset (2004) Review

Nine years have passed since Jesse and Celine first met on that train and spent the night together in Vienna. They have another encounter when Jesse is in Paris on the French part of his book tour, what is his book about? That one special night they had together.

So you connected with someone and spent a magical night with them, agreed to meet six months later. The best part about this film is we find out if either of them actually turned up six months later at the train station. The fact we are getting that they met again nine years later kind of answers that question a bit. But could one of them not make it for some reason and was one of them their all alone?

We quickly find out the answer to that question and it works out the way you probably don’t expect with Jesse flying over from the USA for the meeting but for Celine not to be there. It took nine years for him to find out why she did not turn up. That must have been absolute torture for him, so much so that he then wrote a whole book about it.

The emotions shown by them both are incredible, you can see the same spark is between them and the way they look at each other really makes you melt watching it. Such an intense relationship as they have both pined for one another for nine long years. You can feel the tension from watching them flirt around each other as if they haven’t lived properly since that one meeting.

It’s funny to hear them discussing what happened that night especially when Celine questioned some of the things Jesse put in the book. I really loved the thought of that because people do remember events differently and that is a perfect example. Although with some of it she admits that she was lying to try to get to him. (Which obviously worked). It makes you think about relationships you have had and whether you would both remember the exact same moments or if you would remember them in the same way.

It really does hit hard this instalment, I think it has a lot more tension than the first film. It shows that nine years have passed because of how young and care free they had been nine years earlier. So carefree that they did not decide to swap phone numbers or addresses. But I love that they blame that on being young and stupid. It just shows that if you have a connection with someone you have to explore it, find out if you can make it last.

You will wonder what you would do if after nine years you were brought back together with someone who you never really got over. It will make you question your relationship and if you have that energy and spark Jesse and Celine have with each other. If you don’t guaranteed this film will make you want to or at the very least experience it.

I loved the shots of Jesse moving his hand around so you get a glimpse of a wedding ring, so you know that he is married. Very powerful way to show the audience as it happened a couple of times. They really open up to each other and are very honest about pretty much everything that is going on in life. The ending … The ending is possibly one of the best film endings I’ve seen. I didn’t want it to end at all, but the way it did really leaving it open for you to make your mind up what happened. (Like the first one as well).

Seriously I do not know why it has taken me so long to watch these films, this really had me on edge throughout and the tension and acting really is top quality. An incredible love story.