Before Midnight

'This is how people start breaking up.'

Life is one long compromise, don't ask me why, that's just how it is, don't pretend that it isn't. My pessimistic view on everything is that life forces you into situations where you find yourself making decisions you didn't expect; time then erodes all those plans and ambitions you thought you had forever to attain. Nothing speeds up this process than being in a relationship, then you have two lives and ideals to contend with, then comes the children, the baggage of this mortal coil, and compromises multiply like a disease until time turns you into the exact thing you didn't expect to be; old and full of regret. Well, I'm 22, I have no major ambition, and my expectation of life is essentially that it will be full of occurrences that don't mean anything, I'm aware that I'm unoriginal even in my malaise.

I have strong memories of my Dad turning to me, tears in his eyes, alcohol flowing through his system, telling me his life isn't what he expected, it just seemed to me that an inexplicable fatigue was all that was stopping him from doing anything about his dissatisfaction, because doing something, changing something, was just too much effort and life had already moulded him into what he didn't want to be; old and full of regret.
What is essentially the most heartbreaking thing about Before Midnight is that the magical romance of Jesse and Celine isn't as mystical and perfect as I had hoped, how can I be hopeful in a world where even my favourite cinema couple are saddled with the same problems and regrets that the rest of the world suffer? How can I go on knowing that their unique and beautiful love is as decayed and unstable as everything else in this world? Now I know that life is exactly what I anticipate it to be, I have unequivocal proof that everyone grows to be the same, old and full of regret.

But that doesn't necessarily make life bad, it just makes the good aspects more important, taking what we can from our experiences and grasping what makes us happy and never letting go. Before Midnight was a hard film to watch because of it's realism, the arguments were standard ones that couples have and I didn't expect or want this from Jesse and Celine. I am so used to this pair being so openly honest with each other and that leading to more and more intimate knowledge being revealed and their love growing and their connection strengthening; in direct contrast with the previous Before films, the more the pair talk the more the fractures show and the more frustrated they become with one another and their endless talking instead of bringing them closer together seems to drive them apart; it's heartbreaking!

Perhaps I should give a little bit more information. Richard Linklater created a lovely romance film in 1994 about a pair of young, bright strangers meeting on a train and spending an evening in Vienna exploring the city and each other. The whole concept hinges on the fact that the pair don't expect to see each other again and therefore their rambling becomes more intense as they feel free to open up and let themselves be honest about everything, up to and including their feelings; Before Sunrise!

Then nine years later we have Before Sunset, arguably the better film for a couple of reasons, first and foremost the time-frame is smaller, a couple of hours wandering around Paris, thus the conversation moves better and with that we are literally seeing every second of the pairs reunion. Then there is the fact that Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy (the stars) had a greater hand in the script and the production of the film, Delpy sings her own song, Hawke was going through a divorce from Uma Thurman at the time, and the dialogue was mostly written by the actors; it was more personal.
We see the pair rekindle their romance in a way but it is left ambiguous as to whether they ended up together, but the end of the film was so painfully beautiful I'll let them off.

Yet another nine years later Linklater and the lovely cinema couple, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy returned and from the trailers endlessly repeated at the cinema I work at, it's apparent they are together now over the peak of forty, with their own children and, God help us all, baggage. Before Midnight takes the formula of the previous two films and plays about with the rules. The rules are the pair are out of their element, in a foreign country (I know Celine lived in Paris in Before Sunset but Jesse didn't, and it's still a different country...) and they spend most the film merely talking with only brief interludes from other minor characters. Previously the pair spent the majority of the film alone and in each other's company talking openly and honestly with little or knowledge of any history they had before.

Before Midnight places the pair in Greece with a set of twins and Jesse's stepson leaving to return to America after spending the Summer with his Dad. Some intervention from a friend means the pair are plonked alone in a hotel room for their verbal spar, we do have a lot of walking and talking as before, but it's the couple's history and their lives together which become the core subject of their conversation. The first section of the film weaves a picture of the makeshift family for the viewer, the pair have a set of twins (I feel strangely joyful about that particular fact), they aren't married, Jesse only sees his son from his first marriage during holidays, and his ex-wife isn't particularly happy with the situation, Celine is in the process of changing jobs, and Jesse is still writing books. He wrote a second one based around events from the second film and afterwards, luckily my assumptions that he stayed with her were true, and there was lots of sexy times, good on them! They interact with other people in Greece and we see them on their own and at a little dinner party, before we manacle them together for the other two thirds of film and we have classic Jesse and Celine discussion. But it's not classic, because there's so much more history, and so much less joy to be had, they are older and wiser and there's more going on than just getting to know each other.

The crux of this film is how life and all that comes with it wears on a relationship, even a seemingly perfect one like that of Jesse and Celine. Time waits for no man and it has slipped away from this pair and they don't know what to do with the dissatisfaction that comes with it. Decisions have been made, actions taken, compromises made, and time has hurtled onwards leaving behind regret and resentment. It's so true to life but it hurts to see the pair suffering the same fate the rest of the world must face; I have no doubt in my mind that Jesse and Celine make each other happy but they seem to be grasping at what exactly that is, what makes them happy has evolved and they are trying to adjust to that.

What really resonates about all of the Before films is how the characters talk like real people, sure all of their comebacks and quips are devilishly clever and quicker than you'd imagine, but they actually talk to each other. It's not just a series of monologues about how their life has come to this point, the key is in the dialogue. They dissect and dodge certain aspects and statements and worm their way through and around the issues at hand, their relationship problems. They tackle them head on, but also aren't above walking away from each other when they dislike how things are going, just like real people would. There are some well placed moments of brevity, and explosive bombs lobbed either way, it's just so hard not to be invested in the couple, even if you haven't seen the previous films. (but I would ask why not?) The pairs interactions resonate with everyone I would assume in any kind of long term relationship, but then theirs are strongly personal issues that are specific to their own situation, it's a great thing to see something so specific and yet so all encompassing.

It's a masterful wonderfully written film and although darker than previous entries, it's still achingly realistic and beautiful. I can't compliment the film enough. Just to cap it off, because I feel so invested in the characters, I laughed and cried along with every beat, every exchange. It's hard to feel sometimes and this pair bring out of the best in me, I felt everything and that is significant to me in a film. I just hope we can watch the pair grow old together and see another film in nine years time, I'd be so happy to watch them talking forever.