Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy talk. And talk. And then talk some more. For 105 minutes.
Before Sunrise seems to be hugely critically acclaimed as its placing in the hallowed IMDB top 250 will attest to but I don’t get what all the fuss is about to be honest. As with another film I didn’t ‘get’ Lost in Translation, there seems to be a lot of people who feel some kind of profound connection to Before Sunrise that I just don’t see.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy bump into each other on a train to Paris and end up spending the day together in Vienna. Lots of long and philosophical dialogue ensues in the vein of Cameron Crowe or Kevin Smith at his best. While the chemistry between Hawke and Delpy is both tangible and undeniable there isn’t enough character development or plotting to keep things interesting and that prevented me from feeling invested in the characters.
The soundtrack is forgettable which is disappointing for a Linklater film as normally he does well in that aspect of things. It is safe to say that Before Sunrise is much closer to Boyhood than it is to School of Rock or Dazed and Confused when speaking in terms of Linklater’s output as it is a character study where not much happens. The difference between Linklater’s recent Oscar nominee Boyhood and Before Sunrise I suppose is a matter of opinion, I connected to Boyhood completely even though not a great deal happens but I was disinterested in the outcome here.
Some people obviously love this film but it didn’t really do anything for me.