REVIEW: Before Midnight

Before Midnight (2013): Dir. Richard Linklater. Written by: Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Based on characters created by: Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan. Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Walter Lassally, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Panos Koronis, Ariane Labed and Yiannis Papadopoulos. Rated R (Language, nudity). Running time: 109 minutes.

4 stars (out of four)

In 1995’s Before Sunrise, a young American man named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) meets a young French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy), on a train. They talk, are caught off guard by the spark that lights between them and get off the train together, spending the whole night talking and walking through Vienna. They talk about the Big Things – life, love, childhood, religion, sex – and, as young lovers do, they fall for each other.

They agree to meet again one year later but, as revealed in 2004’s Before Sunset, they never do. In this second film, they bump into each other and stroll around Paris, falling right back into it. They look back on the years past, reflect on the changes in their lives and wonder, “What happened?” If Before Sunrise captured the young, romantic idealism of its characters, Before Sunset found them grappling with the disappointments of life.

In Before Midnight, Jesse and Celine (Hawke and Delpy, reprising their roles for a third time) have taken a considerable amount more control over their happiness, but there remain things that will forever be outside their control (not the least of which being each other).

The final scene of the second film, a wonderful scene brimming with sexual tension, ended on a bit of a will-they-won’t-they-how-much-will-they cliffhanger, so it would be fair to call any description of where Jesse and Celine stand at the beginning of Before Midnight a spoiler. If you feel this way, skip the next paragraph.

Another nine years have passed since their reunion (for us and for them), and we catch up with Jesse, who is now divorced and dropping off his son from that marriage (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) at an airport in Greece. The son is returning to the States after spending the summer with his father and Celine, who now live together in Paris with twin girls, though they remain unmarried. They are vacationing in Greece, staying in the home of a friend.

For the first time in the series, other people join in on Jesse and Celine’s long, reflective conversations. In one of the centerpieces of the film, they have dinner with a widow and a widower (Xenia Kalogeropoulou and Walter Lassally), a married couple (Athina Rachel Tsangari and Panos Koronis), and a pair of young lovers (Ariane Labed and Yiannis Papadopoulos) who are about the same age as Jesse and Celine when they first met.

Over dinner, they discuss the difficulties of sustaining a loving relationship and the complications of sex. Each generation has their own expectations and experiences that they bring to the table. The conversation is lively and boisterous, full of kidding and teasing until Natalia, the widow, who has remained largely silent up until this point, quietly interjects and does nothing less than explain life.

The first two-thirds of Before Midnight, which includes a stroll through a small village and expands on themes explored in the earlier films, is on par with its predecessors in terms of wit and insight. But the scene that follows in a hotel room takes the movie to a level of greatness that surpasses even those wonderful films.

The hotel room is intended to be a romantic getaway but soon becomes the setting for a passionate and furious fight. Jesse and Celine dig into one another, sometimes cruelly, touching on a range of subjects that includes careers, fidelity, parenting methods, their sex life and more. A untouched well of fears, anxiety, jealousy and contempt is released during the feud, which is also perfectly paced and superbly choreographed by director Richard Linklater.

I hope I’m not making the film sound like a miserable experience. Really, it is warm and heartfelt; even at the height of Jesse and Celine’s argument, the movie has the undeniable vitality of life. Has there ever been a screen romance as complex, honest and absorbing as theirs? The movie is exciting because it feels so real and so true. Watch during that hotel room scene how a biting one-liner lands like a sucker punch, as funny as it is hurtful. Maybe you will be reminded, as I was, of scenes from your own life that defy any single emotion but are in fact rich with layers of feeling.

The performances of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reflect this complexity. Jesse and Celine are complicated, multidimensional people. They have changed since the first two movies, and yet, at their core, they have not changed at all. It is fascinating to consider how these characters have evolved, and impressive how Linklater, Delpy and Hawke have so authentically crafted that transformation (the three of them wrote the screenplay together).

With Before Midnight, Linklater boldly and ambitiously continues a thrilling cinematic experiment that began eighteen years ago and shows every sign of continuing for another eighteen. The philosophical and romantic musings of these characters are intellectually stimulating and emotionally invigorating. To watch these movies is to watch life unfold before your eyes.

On one hand, I have gone through a great deal of changes in the last nine years, and yet, on the other hand, I am the exact same person. I look forward to regrouping with Jesse, Celine and myself in another decade or so to see where we all are.

- Steve Avigliano, 7/15/13

REVIEW: The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger (2013): Dir. Gore Verbinski. Written by: Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio. Based on The Lone Ranger by Fran Striker and George W. Trendle. Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper and Helena Bonham Carter. Rated PG-13 (Guns blazing). Running time: 149 minutes.

2 stars (out of four)

The Lone Ranger is two-and-a-half hours long. If you’re wondering why an action reboot of a 1950s TV show (itself based on a 1930s radio serial) needs to be so long, you may find enlightening the fact that the director, Gore Verbinski, is the man who squeezed a total of seven hours and forty-three minutes’ worth of high seas adventures out of an eight-and-a-half minute theme park ride.

In all fairness, there are a few sequences in The Lone Ranger that gallop along with such jubilant energy you may be willing to forgive the bloated excesses of the film, which too often feels as though it is wading through molasses.

The best of these scenes is the climactic fight on a pair of speeding trains on parallel tracks. Set to the triumphant march of the William Tell Overture (the TV show’s theme), the battle adheres to Looney Tunes laws of physics and is an absolute thrill, though figuring out what exactly is happening and why might prove difficult. The scene is the climax of a jumbled and needlessly complicated plot and features no less than a half dozen participants. But as long as our heroes keep leaping, swinging and dueling, nothing matters except the chugga-chugga-choo-choo nonsense of the action.

During the film’s quieter passages, however, it is hard to muster much enthusiasm for the characters who populate this wild west world or understand their murky motivations. You know a script is weak when you’ve got Tom Wilkinson playing a corrupt politician, Barry Pepper as a mustachioed Army officer and Helena Bonham Carter as a one-legged prostitute, and your mind still wanders during the exposition.

But credit should be given to Armie Hammer who, it turns out, has charisma to match the impressive bone structure of his chiseled jawline. He is likable as John Reid, the dopey lawyer-turned-vigilante of the film’s title. He seeks to bring to justice (not revenge) to his brother’s cannibalistic murderer (William Fichtner, chewing the scenery and at least one man’s cardiovascular organ).

Getting just as much if not more screen time is Johnny Depp as Tonto, the wise-but-dumb Injun sidekick to the Lone Ranger. Tonto talks in fortune cookie phraseology and practices all kinds of goofy hokum, trying the Lone Ranger's patience and very often saving their skin. The character, a mostly inoffensive caricature rooted in decades’ old stereotypes, is a jokester who pokes fun at the white man’s hypocritical ways and acts as a catalyst for much of the film’s action. Johnny Depp, a gifted comedic actor, has a lot of fun with the role.

There’s a weeping damsel too who I very nearly forgot to mention. Rebecca (Ruth Wilson) is the widowed wife of the slain brother and (naturally) a romantic interest for the Lone Ranger. Keeping with the sexist traditions of the genre, the movie uses her as a prop. She spends half her screen time wringing her hands, gripping a scarf and holding back tears.

The Lone Ranger is a genial, good-natured waste of time, as pleasant as it is forgettable. And if you see it on a hot day, you’re guaranteed to get your money’s worth of air conditioning.

- Steve Avigliano, 7/8/13