Before Midnight

Richard Linklater

Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick Rated 15 Run time 109 mins

The Third Part: in which – spoiler alert – Celine and Jesse are married, with twins. At the invitation of a benefactor, they’re spending a summer in Greece. Inevitably there are complications, many of them focusing on Jesse’s relation ship with Hank, his son from an earlier marriage. The divorced dad / conflicted teenager dynamic inevitable prefigures Linklater’s masterly Boyhood, which he’d been filming since 2002 (again with Hawke as the divorced father) and which would be released to critical acclaim the following year.

So, perhaps this is the place to reflect on a unique directorial – and indeed actorly- achievement: a trilogy focusing on three days across a span of 18 years. Romance in real time.

98% – Rotten Tomatoes
7.9/10 – IMDB
“While Before Sunrise revelled in its fleeting ineffability, and Before Sunset tingled with will they/won’t they? expectation, this third installment is more melancholic.”
“Working closely with director of photography Christos Voudouris, who shot Yorgos Lanthimos’s enigmatic Alps, Linklater opts once again for lengthy, strolling takes in which dialogue flows naturally, body language speaks volumes, and gestures have the space to breathe.”
Film Review: Before Midnight. Mark Kermode- The Guardian