Julie Delpy has a most acerbically idiosyncratic ear for dialogue, and she seems to have this facility in both English and French. The disarming actress actually co-wrote the perceptive script to Richard Linklater's "Before Sunset" (2005), the reflective nine-years later sequel to "Before Sunrise", with Linklater and co-star Ethan Hawke. This time, she takes charge of the script and direction, as well as the leading role of a French photographer named Marion, who stops at her part-time flat in Paris with her angst-driven American boyfriend Jack. On their way back to New York from a disastrous trip to Venice, the fractious couple stops over to visit her eccentric parents, but it turns into a more revelatory trip about her past than either is prepared to face.
While the similarities to the Linklater films are self-evident, the 2007 film reminds me most of Woody Allen's epochal "Annie Hall" but obviously over a much more concentrated period and with a far more bracing tone. The ramshackle, seemingly unstructured scenes pick up a detail of life that for better and worse, one rarely gets to see on screen. Taken as a series of off-kilter episodes, the movie is entertaining, especially a rabbit dinner scene that firmly establishes Jack as the family outsider. Viewed as a whole, however, it falls short in making a more resonant observation about the characters other than their mounting incompatibility. Part of the reason is that we can already tell from the first scene when the couple is waiting for a taxicab that they thrive on conflict, so what tethers them has a degree of questionability from the outset.
Another reason is a discernible imbalance between the leads. With the Linklater films as her obvious training ground, Delpy brings such an intelligent spark to Marion that every moment feels spontaneous. Her assured and particularly Gallic sense of self grounds the film when it threatens to get overwhelmed by its eccentricities. Casting the often nerve-grating Adam Goldberg as Jack is a bold move for Delpy and not an altogether successful one. With his intense stare and constantly put-upon manner, the actor comes across as more irritating than clever even though Delpy generously gives him the lion's share of the laughs. It is she who makes them believable as a couple. What he does do well is portray his faltering confidence and increasing paranoia in primal strokes.
Over those two defining days, Jack meets Marion's artsy, offbeat friends, three of whom are ex-lovers, and the unwanted attention of a number of other men. The funniest, most unexpected scene is in the Metro when they try avoiding a death-stare stranger who has no hesitation circling them like a buzzard. A genuine spark is provided by Delpy's real-life parents, Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, who play Marion's bohemian, exasperating parents. With Delpy showing obvious talent behind and in front of the camera, the film is caustic fun and an effective, sometimes wistful rumination on what couples really know about each other. I just wish it came together a bit more than it does.
While the similarities to the Linklater films are self-evident, the 2007 film reminds me most of Woody Allen's epochal "Annie Hall" but obviously over a much more concentrated period and with a far more bracing tone. The ramshackle, seemingly unstructured scenes pick up a detail of life that for better and worse, one rarely gets to see on screen. Taken as a series of off-kilter episodes, the movie is entertaining, especially a rabbit dinner scene that firmly establishes Jack as the family outsider. Viewed as a whole, however, it falls short in making a more resonant observation about the characters other than their mounting incompatibility. Part of the reason is that we can already tell from the first scene when the couple is waiting for a taxicab that they thrive on conflict, so what tethers them has a degree of questionability from the outset.
Another reason is a discernible imbalance between the leads. With the Linklater films as her obvious training ground, Delpy brings such an intelligent spark to Marion that every moment feels spontaneous. Her assured and particularly Gallic sense of self grounds the film when it threatens to get overwhelmed by its eccentricities. Casting the often nerve-grating Adam Goldberg as Jack is a bold move for Delpy and not an altogether successful one. With his intense stare and constantly put-upon manner, the actor comes across as more irritating than clever even though Delpy generously gives him the lion's share of the laughs. It is she who makes them believable as a couple. What he does do well is portray his faltering confidence and increasing paranoia in primal strokes.
Over those two defining days, Jack meets Marion's artsy, offbeat friends, three of whom are ex-lovers, and the unwanted attention of a number of other men. The funniest, most unexpected scene is in the Metro when they try avoiding a death-stare stranger who has no hesitation circling them like a buzzard. A genuine spark is provided by Delpy's real-life parents, Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, who play Marion's bohemian, exasperating parents. With Delpy showing obvious talent behind and in front of the camera, the film is caustic fun and an effective, sometimes wistful rumination on what couples really know about each other. I just wish it came together a bit more than it does.