THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 2, 1995 TAG: 9502020025
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
RICHARD LINKLATER'S long night's journey into day is clearly meant to be the dating movie of the moment. American boy meets French girl in Vienna and they wander, and talk, for 14 hours.
That's it.
He has to meet a plane and she has to meet a train ``Before Sunrise,'' which happens to be the title of this talkathon. Some of the talk is refreshingly innocent and seemingly spontaneous. All of it is in the spirit of searching. They talk about death and life and parents and former dates and existentialism and, well, just about everything.
There is a theory that everyone has either been in love or wants to be in love. Sooooo, the movie should work for everyone, right? Not necessarily. At times, this couple's visit seems like more than 14 hours.
Ethan Hawke, a seemingly shy, tentative actor who first scored among the throng in ``Dead Poet's Society,'' is the greasy-haired American actor with the goatee. While other actors of his generation fight over becoming the next James Dean, he seems bent upon becoming the next Montgomery Clift - the sensitive one. Here, he's a good deal more sympathetic and believable than he was in the ill-fated ``Reality Bites.''
He's on a train to Vienna when he spots Celine (Julie Delpy), a blond French student who is headed back to Paris from Vienna. Since he doesn't have money for a hotel room, he has planned to walk the streets of Vienna all night, until time for his plane to America the next morning.
In effect, he invites her to become a street walker with him but it's all very sweet - extremely sweet. When physical moves are finally made, they are made by her, not him.
She says things like, ``Sometimes I think feminism was really invented by men so they could fool around more.''
This is the most talky movie since ``My Dinner With Andre.'' But in that movie, they had more to talk about. You can only take innocence so far.
I strongly suspect the boys may hate this movie while a good percentage of the girls will love it - or pretend to love it because they want to send the boys a message that they should be as ``sensitive'' as Ethan Hawke. Meanwhile, the boys may write Ethan off as the wimp of the year.
In any case, Vienna is pictured as the perfect city to be stuck in if you have to wander around all night. Apparently no one ever gets mugged in Vienna. It's perfectly safe and, as a plus, you get to see the big Ferris wheel and other sights that were photographed in ``The Third Man.''
To the credit of director Richard Linklater, he has not used the usual pop tunes for background. He's used a few Austrian folk songs, some well-used pop stuff, and even a few classical selections for a musical soundtrack that contributes rather than distracts from the fledgling lovers.
Delpy, who plays Celine, is at all times better than Hawke. She has an edge that suggests she knows more than she's saying, and she's even a bit miffed that she's attracted to him. There is every indication that she's a young version of the worldly French woman epitomized by Simone Signoret or Jeanne Moreau.
Linklater was more irreverent with ``Slacker'' and a good deal louder with the overly praised ``Dazed and Confused.'' He signals here that he does have a more focused side.
We like Julie and Ethan for moments at a time, but maybe not for 100 minutes - not when their attention span and focus wanders this much. Sure, love is grand and we are in dire need of ``sensitive'' movies like this. That's all true, but when you want to get perfectly honest about it, your tolerance for ``Before Sunrise'' will depend almost entirely on how much talk you can take. ILLUSTRATION: CASTLE ROCK
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke talk about life and death and parents
and former dates and everything in ``Before Sunrise.''
MOVIE REVIEW
``Before Sunrise''
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenplay: Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan
MPAA rating: R (language, actually its innocence of tone should
have gotten it a PG-13 instead)
Mal's rating: **1/2
Locations: Pembroke in Virginia Beach
by CNB