writer's block: before sunset

"Before Sunset"
dir., Richard Linklater
wri., Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Richard Linklater
2004

*This is the first part in a series of films I'll tackle that demonstrate the weight and magic of words.

Somewhere in Paris a man and a woman share a cab. They're a little bit more gaunt and weathered since we last saw them almost ten years ago conversing and canoodling in another picturesque European metropolis. Age has not only added a wrinkle here and there to their pre-Real World faces, but it has also let them down, enlightened them, and made them just as confused and in awe of each other since their initial serendipitous meeting. This scene from Richard Linklater's "Before Sunset" is written with such naturalism and intelligence that not only do you feel and understand the heartbreak of lives never fully realized but also the vocalization of adults wanting to embrace themselves and each other. You would think Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were lovers in real life with the scene's organically conversational tone, but it's their deft chemistry and ease with each other that instills the scene with a tenderness and plausibility. They're a convincing pair that fits just so as we watch them feed off their emotional ebb and flow. Delpy is especially mesmerizing in the scene with her mature and nuanced portrait of a woman grappling for her purpose and place in the world that is further complicated by her fractured relationships with the opposite sex. Her ability to articulate her feelings in a fragmented, honest, and true way makes her a full bodied woman and accessible human being.

I'm eager to see these characters in another nine years with the hope that they are as compelling, engaging, and most importantly, articulate adults with something to say.