If you want to know how to make a great sequel, watch Before Sunset. It is the sequel to the 1995 movie Before Sunrise, and it picks up the story from that film very well, whilst still filling in those people who may not have seen it, (or had forgotten what happened).
"Before Sunrise" related the one-night-stand of a pair of young, idealistic twenty-somethings - Before Sunset is set nine years later, at their next meeting. Now, however, they're thirty-somethings: a bit more philosophical, a bit more reflective, a bit more cynical, a bit more real. This is what makes the movie so good - the people are totally authentic, and it is fascinating to listen in to the conversation which they are having. (The film runs in real time, by the way - they spend 80 minutes or so chatting before one of them has to plane to catch.)
Nevertheless, the lines are delivered with a little too much precision - people don't actually talk like that. In my experience, they interrupt each other, stumble over words, and have more pauses than they do in this movie. And there was a bizarre reference to Trappist monks - the girl (Celine) hadn't heard of them, while the guy (Jesse) relates how he went to a Trappist monastery and really appreciated their laughter. Now, I thought they were the guys who took a vow of silence (?!) - but the reference didn't seem like it was intended to be ironic...
Having said that, the two main characters (played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) do have a great on-screen chemistry. The Parisian setting is sublime. The minimalist plot works wonderfully. This is a film worth seeing.
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