Box office $ 5.5 million
This was the first time I saw a movie that had nothing close to a human antagonist, yet it kept me glued to the screen. Sure I've read a few novels of the kind but surely they weren't "oh I'm glued" stuff. Everybody at least once in their life dreams of something like this and this movie makes it believable. After watching the movie I really thought that Ethan & Julie must have dated 'cause their conversations were just flowing. Definitely a must see.
Filipe Manuel Neto
October 6, 2023
7
**A very simple but very human film, with very good feelings and dialogue.**
Contrary to what I like to do, I saw this film after seeing its sequel, “Before Sundown”. It's a very nice story about an American tourist who is enchanted by a French student he meets on the train on the way to Vienna, and invites her to spend some time with him. The rest of the film is an intense dialogue between the two through the streets of the city, as emotions and feelings develop.
The best thing this film has to offer is the surprising and intensely credible interpretation of the main actors. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are both young, elegant and seem to make a nice couple (of course, the characters, not the actors). I don't know if I'm the only person to think this way, but it seems like the actors felt what the characters were feeling, to the extent that there was sympathy or mutual understanding between the two professionals, and a chemistry that permeated entirely to us. .
Directed and written with great skill by Richard Linklater, the film can summarize the first meetings of many young couples out there, and I have no doubt that there are many people who will easily identify with the two characters. Who has never chatted with someone cute on a train or bus? There are friendships that start like this, and I myself have a similar case in my life: I have a friend that I value very much, who is blind and who I met by chance on the train, helping her to sit down on more than one occasion (we were both regular travelers due to work). It's a very human film, full of feelings, and full of good dialogues.
After about five minutes of this, I was resigned to watching a reimagining of "Brief Encounter" (1945) and started to give up. Then, it began to take an altogether different tack as we meet a young and fairly penniless American "Jesse" (Ethan Hawke) who starts chatting with "Celine" (Julie Delpy) on a train journey and there is a visually striking chemistry on display pretty much from the start as their conversation quite quickly progresses from the idle chit chat to more substantial matters of life, love and the pursuit of happiness. He has a flight from Vienna next morning and without the cash for an hotel suggests that she and he spend the night together. Not in bed, but exploring this beautiful city and each other's minds. It's the frankness of their chat that proves really engaging here and the way this double-header sees them effortlessly bounce off each other works really naturally. Perhaps because these two characters are strangers and therefore have nothing to lose, their chat cuts through the strata of politeness and delicacies and soon has them conversing as if they have known each other for all of their lives, and it's meandering style resonates surprisingly effectively as they flirt but try to resist the temptations of the flesh so their romance remains untarnished as she gets on her train next morning. The writing from auteur Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan smacks of a mischievous realism that allows them, and us, to relax and enjoy the warmth of a frivolous yet quite penetrating discourse that is devoid of one-upmanship or advantage seeking. Being set in Vienna does it no harm either, and Linklater ensures we see a fair amount of the city (sometimes serenaded by the odd piece from Strauss) and I was really quite pleasantly surprised with both actors and writers here.
