If you are a Gen-Xer who has not sold your soul to Jerry Bruckheimer, there's a chance you will enjoy Before Sunrise and its recent sequel, Before Sunset. To call these films dialog-driven is to underplay how much text, and how little action, occurs. These are finely tuned character studies that genuinely capture the sensibilities of worldly people in their early twenties, then again in their early thirties. Before Sunset, which we saw this weekend, surprised me. I expected a letdown after the imaginative Before Sunrise, but I was instead moved by the depth of emotion that I believe accurately reflects the dilemmas of these thirtysomethings. The stars, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, were heavily involved in the writing of the second film, but rather than turning it into a vanity-driven piece of tripe, their involvement in their characters led to a surprisingly touching denoument to their story.
Are these movies chick flicks? Sure, to a certain extent. However, both movies offer a depth and cleverness that redeems them from the typical Hollywood formula, which is reason enough to watch them, as far as I am concerned.
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