Film Review: "Before Midnight" (2013).

"Everything's better with maturity" in Before Midnight. This This romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater, and co-written by Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. It is the third in a trilogy, following Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004). We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.

Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy had all discussed doing a sequel to Before Sunset. Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke have all agreed on interviews that the final thing that made them decide to make the movie was the fact that the three of them are parents and could know how to write that into the characters' lives. In June 2012, Hawke confirmed that the sequel would be filmed that summer. Soon after, Delpy denied filming would take place that year. But by August 2012, numerous reports emerged from Messenia, Greece, that the film was being shot there. In early September, it was announced that principal photography on the sequel, entitled Before Midnight, had wrapped. Linklater said that, after ten weeks of writing and rehearsing, the film was made in fifteen days for less than $3 million. Although the movie features naturalistic dialogue, every scene was heavily rehearsed, rigidly followed the script and involved no improvisation. The film is dedicated to the memory of Amy Lehrhaupt, the woman who was the inspiration for Before Sunrise. Linklater had spent a night walking and talking around Philadelphia with her in 1989. Though initially they stayed in touch over the telephone, they lost contact eventually. In 1994, Linklater started shooting Before Sunrise and when the world premiere was about to take place, Linklater was secretly hoping that Amy would show up but she did not. Ten years later, Linklater shot Before Sunset and had yet to hear from Amy. Finally, in 2010, a friend of Amy's who knew about their story, contacted Linklater to tell him that Amy had died in a motorcycle accident on May 9, 1994 at the age of 24, only a few weeks before he started shooting Before Sunrise. Both Linklater and Hawke were devastated but found comfort in the inspiration for the Before Trilogy.

The film stars Hawke and Delpy. Like the previous two films, Hawke and Delpy find nuance, art and eroticism in words, spoken and unspoken. The actors shine. Both Hawke and Delpy are excellent and their performances have real depth. This time, too, they're doing more than appearing as fictional creations in a Richard Linklater film. They now share the writing credit with him and are clearly putting much of their experiences of the past two decades into characters they have possessed and been possessed by.

Filled with engaging dialogue, Before Midnight is a witty, poignant romance, with natural chemistry between Hawke and Delpy. The film was a remarkable celebration of the fascination of good dialogue. But the film is better, perhaps because the characters are older and wiser, perhaps because they have more to lose (or win), and perhaps because Hawke and Delpy wrote the dialogue themselves.

Simon says Before Midnight receives:

Also, see my review for Bernie.