While ‘Before Sunrise’ sort of idealized a serendipitous encounter with ‘the one’ at its best, ‘Before Sunset’ brings us back to reality. They met again, after 9 years of separation. Well, they’re supposed to meet again 6 months after they parted in platform 9 in Vienna’s train station as they pledged each other but it never happened. So they met again in Paris. Jesse, now a writer (of which about that night they met), on the last stop of his book tour, at the tail end of a reading in a Paris book shop, met Celine again. He confessed later that he wrote the book as a way to find her (of which I think the sweetest thing a guy is capable of doing to express his feeling). But things were different and complicated for them. The chemistry was still there. They talked and talked and found the soul-to-soul connection they once had (and never lost). Nevertheless, they lived their lives, made choices (Jesse is now married with one son, Celine has a boyfriend). This, arguably, was the most realistic, brutally honest ‘romance story’ ever written. Jesse was utterly clear in expressing his regret (of them not meeting sooner) he said:
Oh, God, why weren’t you there, in Vienna? I wish you would have been. Our lives might have been so much different.
Celine was much more realistic at first, referring them with their encounter in Vienna as
You know, maybe we’re – we’re only good at brief encounters, walking around in European cities in warm climate.
Memories are wonderful things, if you don’t have to deal with the past.
Is it true? Well we would find out towards the end that Celine actually wrote a song about Jesse. Gosh, could it be more romantic than that? He wrote her a book, she wrote a song! And before you realize it, the movie is over 
I told you that this is the most realistic love story ever written, so don’t expect them to end up together 
I can never think of any better ending really. Think about it, Jesse loves his son, and divorce would end at least half of his time with him. What would you do if you are married with a child and you meet your biggest love in life again? Is it better to divorce and risk seeing your child only at weekends, but live together with your true love? As for Celine, will the memory of one love and ‘what if’ prevent her from fully letting go with someone else?
Afterall, we are all adults with certain roles and responsibilities the society demands from us. When we think about it, suddenly we realize it is not all about love. It is about life. Life’s hard. It’s supposed to be. If we didn’t suffer, we’d never learn anything.
Just to share the gem, I will leave you with the links where you can read all wonderful quotes from these movies. My favorite is:
I guess when you’re young, you just believe there’ll be many people with whom you’ll connect with. Later in life, you realize it only happens a few times.
Here you are…
Of course I strongly recommend you watch the movies first!
2nd part:
Have you watched the movies? I am writing this second part of my review on the movies because particularly, I was very surprised that I relate to Celine’s character so damn well it almost scares me.
1. Celine comes from a good, well-educated family which left her with apparently nothing to complain about. Yet, she still faced the same struggle, she’s restless and always questioning the meaning of her existence in the world.
2. On the other hand, she admits:
I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood, and without making it look my whole life is revolving around some guy. But loving someone, and being loved means so much to me. We always make fun of it and stuff. But isn’t everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?
Oh my goodness, it is so true! While I’d like to say that my life is all about my career, you all can see that I DO care about my personal life (hence this blog 
).
3. In ‘Before Sunrise’ Celine told Jesse about her last boyfriend. He was totally beneath her in every way that she thought their being together as ’she was doing him a favor’. He in fact, broke up with her. And the interesting thing is, Celine became obsessed with the guy, the guy she never loved anyway. Hahaha…I completely understand this paradox. I’ve been there I didn’t love my ex but when he broke up with me (sort of..he in fact just disappeared from my life) I was kind of obsessed. It was not an act out of love, instead it was all pride. I should have been the one who walked away (remember? during the time we’re together, I was merely doing you a favor ).
4. Celine’s ex’es are all married. Well, one of my ex’es is married 
And most guys who used to court me are now happily ‘in a relationship’. Really, I never want to hook up with them in the first place. But I don’t know why I still sigh everytime I learn -the hard way- that my fan base is (arguably) non-existent
5. She’s a Sag, just like me. She enjoys having her palm read by a Gypsy. And she believes in astrology “You’re a Scorpio, I’m a Sagittarius, that’s why we get along so well!” she said to Jesse.
6. Career aspiration. I really want to do what she does, putting her passion and turn into actions. She works for an international non-governmental organization doing things to make the world better.
7. Her take on soulmate:
The concept is absurd. The idea that we can only be complete with another person is evil! Right?
Oh yeah baby…this is the best-said remark on soulmate I ever hear!
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