Review: Before Midnight (15)

This second sequel to Before Sunrise deconstructs the nature of love and the longevity of relationships. What was once a meeting of minds, emotion and love (that word again) has become a tense stand-off between two people who may have reached the end of the line.

Fans of the on-going evolution of Celine and Jesse’s affair – now marriage – will nod sagely at their knowledge that nothing stays the same. Linklater focuses on what keeps people together, why and how they stay together and what thoughts tumble through their minds that steer them towards breaking up.

The difference with the Celine/Jesse Delpy/Hawke dynamic is that here are two minds in sync. Always they are prepared to talk, argue, disagree and fight.

Linklater (with his cast, who co-wrote the script) veers from comedy to heartbreak, scattering the dialogue with home truths.

Resentments, some real, some imagined, pepper the action, which is played out like vignettes as husband and wife spar, reconnect and diverge again. Will they make it? Should they? Before Midnight dares to present such questions. There may yet be a fourth instalment with with more drama to come.