Warning! Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk. Thank you.
Truthfully, I never had an inkling that there would be a third part. Not that I was contented with the ending of the second one, but I somehow live thriving in the idea that no one ever knew about happy, or possibly tragic, ending. The story was beautiful as it was.
Not all film trilogies are successful; sometimes, sequels fail to surpass the greatness of the ones it follows. Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight simply made it to the best of the best.
A few months ago, photos from Before Midnight quickly traversed the Internet and “Before” fans hyperventilated, including myself.
I began Googling stuff about the rumored film and was really excited to see how things went with the French-American love birds.
But a resonating question swirled inside my head – “What the hell would they still talk about?”
I was pretty excited to see the advanced screening of Before Midnight so I invited one of my girl-friends, who is now happily married, to share the silverscreen with me. I knew I made the right choice of having her as my movie date because she is a big sucker for the Hawke-Delpy love team. Boy, did we squee and weep like teenagers in our seats! On our way home, we talked about how beautiful the film was (of course) and my friend said with her eyes still soaked from girly tears, “I’m still in that Jesse-Celine bubble! I couldn’t wait to spoil everything [to her husband].”
One of the best things about this trilogy is that even if you watch all three in different eras, you’d still really feel that Before Sunrise took place in the ‘90s, Before Sunset in the early 2000s, and Before Midnight in the 2010s. In the future, I wouldn’t be surprised if the daughters of our would-be sons would appreciate the story the same way our current generation appreciates it.
The transitions from the first to the second and to the third were elaborate and obvious – in Before Sunrise, Celine wore a long dress over a baby tee plus black sneakers; in Before Sunset, Jesse sported a hair gel ‘do, which made him look like he a member of some boy band, and; in Before Midnight, Jesse and Celine had iPhones. Watching them grow is time travel itself. After all, each of them took place, more or less, ten decades apart.
In line with transitions, seeing our sappy protagonists’ physical projections was like viewing human evolution in three movie reels. Julie Delpy’s face is angelic throughout the whole series. Her aura and charm in the first film, however, was replaced with boldness and sexiness in the second film, and was outshined by ambition and power in the third. Her figure became more akin to a mother’s. Even her accent has changed a lot. Also, here’s a wild spoiler: “Before” fans finally get to see her breasts! Ha-ha.
Hawke is sensational from the very beginning until the very end.
He is, as per usual, a hopeless romantic. The lines on his faces may have multiplied but his appeal remained strong – at least to the lady viewers. He is still very much in love with the same woman he met on a train back in 1994. He is all the more smitten and, sometimes, it’s already kind of ridiculous.
You could see how much they have grown from their gullible twenties to their goal-driven thirties and even to their steadfast forties. They are both so transparent. The character of Celine tells us that women could only be so neurotic, while Jesse’s role shows us that – excuse the cheesiness – true, although imperfect, love exists. There are no pretentions. It has always been like that. And this is probably what I like most about this series.
Another thing I like about the trilogy is that it doesn’t come any close to the basic romantic-comedy flicks out there. Sure, Before Sunrise, Sunset, and Midnight are chick flicks but there’s a large statistics of men that follow the film.
If I were to choose which “Before” film is my favorite, I’d be baffled for a long time. As of now, especially after seeing Before Midnight, it’s really hard to pick just one. Each film has its own intensity of emotions. You couldn’t watch one without watching the other. The continuity among the three co-exists.
Everything is a package.
Hawke and Delpy are tantamount to each other’s magnificence. Their God-knows-how-long one-take scenes with impromptu ad libs along the streets of Vienna, Paris, and Greece were to-die-for. Yes, they talked about random things but those random things came with reality and substance. (Fact: they co-wrote Before Midnight with director Richard Linklater.)
So, to answer my resonating question – in Before Midnight, here are some of the random things they talked about (or at least the things I remember they did talk about), in no particular order:
- Making unprotected love for the first time and bearing twins,
- Sleeping around with someone else,
- Still being together 52 more years after,
- Time-traveling,
- The perks of being over 35,
- And so much more!
And the last but certainly not the least bit, here’s my favorite life lesson from Before Midnight: Love, or life in general, is short-lived – just like the rising and setting of the sun – but we always know that there’s a next sunrise tomorrow, an upcoming sunset the next day, and inevitable midnights in the years and years to come.
After seeing Before Midnight, I kept on thinking if there will be a next chapter to look forward to in the next nine years or so. Maybe not – that’s way too predictable. But maybe yes – a sequel when they’re already in their 70s and they’re all saggy and forgetful – a Before Morning wouldn’t be a bad idea.
After all, what Jesse and Celine has, it’s true love, no?
When in Manila would like to thank Echo Channels. It was a pleasure to see one of the most awaited film sequels in advance. To those who are itching to see it, don’t fret! Before Midnight will be shown at all local cinemas starting July 03, 2013.
Before Midnight: Is This the End?