Before Midnight is a 2013 American romantic drama film and the sequel to Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004). Like its predecessors, the film was directed by Richard Linklater and stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.
We meet Celine and Jesse nine years after their last rendezvous, in Before Sunset. Almost two decades have passed since their first encounter on a train bound for Vienna in Before Sunrise, and we now find them in their early forties in Greece. Before the clock strikes midnight, we will again become part of their story.
Director Richard Linklater continues his enchanting tale of a chance meeting between two strangers, bringing to it a nuanced perspective only gained by years lived. As it does in each film in the series, life carries with it new responsibilities and attitudes, forcing the two dreamers to reassess what they want next.
Bolstered by an increasingly refined onscreen chemistry between lead actors Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight is a fitting third chapter in one of the great love stories of American independent cinema.
Before Midnight Reviews
“Brilliantly directed, superbly written and impeccably acted, this is a thoroughly enjoyable, thought-provoking and emotionally engaging drama that perfectly complements the previous two films.” ViewLondon
“Whatever a modern love story is, Before Midnight takes it to the next level. It's damn near perfect.” Rolling Stone
“A more-than-worthy, expectations-exceeding chapter in one of modern cinema's finest love stories. As honest, convincing, funny, intimate and natural as its predecessors.” Total Film
“Before Midnight confounds expectations in powerful and even haunting ways. It's not just darker than the previous two films. It's bigger, deeper, and more searching. It follows the characters through a tale of embattled love that extends far beyond them.” Entertainment Weekly
“The latest in the wonderful "Before” series does three important things: It breaks out of the courtship formula, yet retains the series' quality, and it moves the lives of Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) forward in ways that are satisfying and believable." San Francisco Chronicle
“Bittersweet, intelligently written, deftly acted and painfully honest.” USA Today
“It's a rare and powerful thing to confront something honest and real on the big screen. It stays with you in a way that nothing else can. Before Midnight is fiction but it might as well be a documentary.” ReelViews
“If the first two films belong with the greatest (if talkiest) movie romances of all time, the new film is richer, riskier, and more bleakly perceptive about what it takes for love to endure (or not) over the long haul.” Boston Globe
“Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy shine in what has to be the most genuine, brutally honest, and romantic tale of love in all of film history. Linklater has made a crowning achievement!” Film Geek Central
“Before Midnight is like an old friend who has grown sharper and grumpier and saltier with life; and for students of cinema, the film is a masterclass in the use of the language and tools of this amazing artform to portray human nature” Urban Cinefile
“Before Midnight is a wonderful paradox: a movie passionately committed to the ideal of imperfection that is itself very close to perfect.” The New York Times
“The trouble with those first two film was their souffle-light scenarios…Here, however, things are much juicier as infidelity, commitment, divorce, resentment and all the other soul-sapping things that clock in when you hit your 40s come into play.” 3AW
“Delpy and Hawke, who’ve invested this trilogy with the fine shadings of life lived, do extraordinary things with small moments.” New York Daily News
“A bit tarter than its predecessors, but not skimping on their woozy, chatty charm, this perfectly played, gently incisive film is a welcome new chapter in one of cinema's most beguiling ongoing romances.” Empire Magazine
“Honoring all that was memorable about its forebears while taking the story to new depths of catharsis, Before Midnight stands as a unique and uniquely satisfying entry in what has shaped up to be an outstanding screen trilogy” Variety