Some movies I just really don’t expect to fully comprehend at the ripe old age of 20. For example, I don’t really expect to understand the intricacies of love and marriage as portrayed by “This is 40” and “Amour.”
Though both are extremely realistic and vivid, I almost feel like I’m watching a fantasy film because I cannot locate them anywhere within my own personal experiences. The same is true for “Before Midnight,” Richard Linklater’s third entry into what I suppose can be called the “Before” series (comprising of 1995′s “Before Sunset” and 2004′s “Before Sunrise”). I just kind of have to take the word of others that the film once again captures something true about the place of love in the human condition. I get a feeling that in twenty years, something about Linklater’s film will resonate more strongly with me. But for now, I’m left most impacted by the saga’s first entry that explored idealistic notions of love and compatibility.
Though this is the now the third time that they’ve done it, I’m still left reeling by the fact that Linklater, along with co-writers and stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, can make long, drawn-out conversations about broad topics into compelling cinema. It’s a bold and daring conceit to expect an audience to sit for nearly two hours and listen to fictional characters broach subjects that they themselves are often too scared to touch. The concept seems like one bound to the stage, but it works yet again on screen.
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