Raymond and Ray are half-brothers. united by a name and by their mutual loathing of their late father. However, they decide to honor their father’s wish that they dig his grave for his burial and journey together to do this. The physical journey becomes a metaphorical one as they both discover things about their errant dad, each other and themselves.
Shot through with plenty of humour and lots of tender moments, this film is an absolute joy. There were definitely a few surprises along the way and I wasn’t quite sure where either character would end up.
Ewan McGregor was fine as uptight, twice divorced Raymond, but Ethan Hawke absolutely shone as ex-addict, cynical saxophonist Ray, and for me he was the MVP of this film. A fine supporting cast do a great job as well, including Sophie Okonedo who is wonderful as a former nurse of the father and finds connection of a sort with Ray.
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I expected to enjoy this based on the trailer, but it exceeded my expectations and I would definitely recommend this.
Well, it worked for Baz Luhrmann, when he updated Romeo and Juliet to a modern day setting. In this film, director Michael Almereyda updates Hamlet and shifts the action to corporate New York in 2000. Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) is mourning the loss of his father, who was the CEO of The Denmark Corporation. He believes that his father was in fact murdered by his Uncle Claudius (Kyle McLachlan) who has gone on to marry Hamlet’s mother Gertrude (Diane Verona) in distasteful haste, and is also the new CEO of the corporation.
Hamlet is determined to avenge his father’s death. Meanwhile, he struggles with his own loose grip on sanity, as does his former girlfriend Ophelia (Julia Stiles).
I’m not completely sure what to make of this adaptation. I like the idea – I like Shakespeare’s plays in their own settings, but I do like to see them in new and unfamiliar settings, which may entice other people to try them out. This version comes in just shy of two hours, which is pretty short, considering that Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play (the very faithful Kenneth Branagh adaptation is four hours long). Certain parts have been cut out, but the essence of the story remains intact, and Shakespeare’s original language is used throughout, although not in its entirety. The cast overall were strong – Ethan Hawke is an under-rated actor, and he captures Hamlet’s fine line between grief and insanity very well. I also liked Julia Stiles and Liev Schreiber as Ophelia and Laertes respectively. Kyle MacLachlan did a fine job as Claudius, while Diane Verona was excellent as Gertrude, and really captured the character. Hamlet’s ‘friends’ (if you have seen the play, you will understand why I use the term loosely) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are played by Steve Zahn and Dechen Thurman – who is the brother of Ethan Hawke’s then wife Uma Thurman – and Zahn in particular shone in his role. I also really liked Karl Geary as Horatio, Hamlet’s true friend until the end.
The cast was not perfect however – unfortunately, the usually excellent Bill Murray seemed lost as Polonius. I’ve seen Murray in straight roles before and he is normally great in them, but I didn’t think he suited this particular character at all, and just seemed to be reading his lines with no inflection or meaning whatsoever. It’s a shame – Polonius could have been great with a different actor, but overall this did not detract from my enjoyment of the film.
What did occur to me however was that if I didn’t know the story of Hamlet, I think I would have had trouble following what was happening. It’s not the language; it was more that scenes seemed particularly disjointed from one another, and it seemed to me that it was jumping about a bit – first concentrating on this, then concentrating on that. On that basis, I would definitely recommend that anyone planning on watching this familiarises themselves with the story first.
On a positive note, New York City is actually a very good backdrop for the story…aesthetically it looks perfect, and I also loved the music. I’m not sure that I can forgive the famous To Be Or Not To Be soliloquy being recited in voice-over while our hero roams a Blockbuster video store. There was probably some symbolism there, but it escaped me.
Overall, if you are looking for an adaptation of Hamlet, this is not the best one to start with. However, if you are a fan of the play and want to see this version for that reason, you might find more to enjoy than you expect.
Year of release: 2000
Director: Michael Almereyda
Producers: Jason Blum, John Sloss, Andrew Fierberg, Amy Hobby, Callum Greene
Writers: William Shakespeare (play), Michael Almereyda
Main cast: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Diane Verona, Bill Murray, Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Karl Geary, Steve Zahn, Dechen Thurman
This is the third (and maybe last?) film in the series that started with Before Sunrise, and continued with Before Sunset. Just as Before Sunset was set nine years after Before Sunrise, both in the story and in real life, so Before Midnight was made and set nine years after Before Sunset. This review contains MAJOR spoilers for Before Midnight, and minor spoilers for Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
Jesse and Celine have been a couple since the events of the previous film, and have twin seven year old daughters. They live in Paris, but for this film is set in the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, where they have been staying for six weeks. It starts with Jesse at the airport with his son Henry (Hank). Hank has been spending the summer with Jesse and Celine and is now heading home to Chicago, and Jesse is concerned that he is not more available for his son, and that he does not see Hank as much as he would like. Meanwhile Celine is at a career crossroads – she has been offered a job with the French government, and is considering taking it.
Like the two preceding films, Before Midnight is very dialogue heavy, and the acting is superb, with the two leads perfectly portraying all the frustrations, concerns and observations of their situation(s). Unlike the other two films however, there is quite a lot of interaction with other characters, especially in the first half of this film. There is one scene where they eat dinner with their hosts in Greece, and other people who are also stopping there, where they all talk about love, life and relationships. It’s wonderfully acted and enjoyable viewing, but it does feel slightly unusual to see Jesse and Celine interacting with other people (particularly in some scenes where they are separately interacting with others).
It moves into more familiar territory when Jesse and Celine walk around the city together, and talk about what the future might hold for them. They then go to a hotel room which has been booked for them, and this is where the tension which has been bubbling under the surface for so much of the film, breaks free, and their relationship really seems to be under threat.
I cannot say that I didn’t enjoy this film, and if you have seen the other two, you kind of HAVE to watch this one. However, whereas the others left me with a feeling of optimism and possibility, this one was a bit of a downer. Obviously Jesse and Celine have been together for a long time and have the day-to-day responsibility of looking after their daughters, as well as Celine’s job worries and Jesse’s concerns about his son. In short – things are no longer all hearts and flowers, because reality has well and truly set in. That’s normal and expected. But I came away from Before Midnight thinking that if there is a fourth film, I cannot see them still being a couple another nine years down the road. There are accusations of infidelity, signs that neither is really happy with their life together, and the very real possibility that the dream is over and they perhaps should break up. The ending is less ambiguous than the ending for either Before Sunrise or Before Sunset, but long-term prospects for Jesse and Celine do not seem certain.
I’m certainly glad I watched it – the setting is gorgeous, and as mentioned before, the acting is perfect – but if I’m watching Jesse and Celine’s story in future, I think I’ll stop after Before Sunset.
Year of release: 2013
Director: Richard Linklater
Producers: Richard Linklater, Liz Glotzer, Jacob Pechenik, Martin Shafer, Lelia Andronikou, Kostas Kefalas, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Vincent Palmo Jr., John Sloss, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Sara Woodhatch
Writers: Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delphy
Main cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delphy, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Panos Koronis, Walter Lassally
I can’t emphasise this enough – if you are wondering what DID happen six months after the events of the preceding film Before Sunrise, and whether or not Jesse and Celine did meet up as planned, then DO NOT read this review until after watching this film. It is pretty impossible to review this film without talking about what happened in the nine years between events of Before Sunrise and events of Before Sunset.
So as mentioned, Before Sunset takes place nine years after Before Sunrise (both in the story, and in real life; the first film was made in 1995, and this was made in 2004). In Before Sunrise, Jesse and Celine meet on a train in Europe, and end up spending the evening together, walking around Vienna, discussing everything they can think of, and gradually falling in love. At the end of the film they decide to meet again in six months, at the train station in Vienna.
The sequel is set in Paris, and starts with Jesse, who is now a published author, having written a novel about an American boy and a French girl who meet on a train and spend a night together in Vienna – sound familiar? – giving an interview in the Shakespeare and Co. Bookshop. (Note: This is a REAL bookshop in Paris. I have visited there, and would recommend…in fact insist…that if you are a book lover and are ever in Paris, you MUST visit this shop. Really. It’s incredible – you literally spend all day there, reading, browsing, shopping, talking.) Anyway, at the end of the interview, he looks up and sees Celine in the shop. They decide to spend the time before Jesse’s flight home, walking around Paris, and catching up – because, as it transpires, they did not meet up as planned six months after meeting on the train. It’s clear that there is still a connection and an attraction between the two, but with Jesse now married with a child, things are not as simple as they were nine years earlier.
I loved Before Sunrise, but I definitely preferred Before Sunset. It’s a sadder film in a way – both characters are older and wiser; they have both been bruised by life, and have realised that things don’t always turn out the way you want or expect them to. Jesse is in a loveless marriage, and Celine has been in a number of unfulfilling relationships. They have lost hope to some extent, that life will always be good in the end. Both of them regret not meeting up when they had arranged to (it is quickly revealed that Jesse did go to the meeting place, but Celine couldn’t as her grandmother died a few days earlier, and she was at her grandmother’s funeral). In fact, life’s disappointments seem positively etched on Jesse’s face. It has to be said that Ethan Hawke does not look well here because he’s just so scrawny, but somehow that fits his character who is disillusioned with his life, and cannot forget the beautiful French girl he met years before. But for all that, there is optimism too. As Jesse says, his problems are much bigger now than before, but he is better equipped to deal with them. Celine is harder, more brittle, but still vulnerable and emotional.
As in Before Sunrise, the acting is wonderful. There are other people in the film, but for the vast majority of it, it’s just Hawke and Delphy exploring Paris, and talking, reconnecting. It plays out almost in real time (the film is just 80 minutes long, as Jesse has about that much time before he has to leave to catch a flight home), and the conversation seems so natural. It was scripted, but it feels unscripted. And very real and believable.
And of course, there’s Paris itself. They don’t visit the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe for example, but instead go to perhaps lesser known places – after all Celine lives there, and Jesse isn’t really interested in sight-seeing, and it really works. It still shows Paris off as the beautiful city it is, while leaving you free to concentrate on the two main characters.
The ending is again ambiguous (to me anyway – many viewers think that it is not so). It doesn’t wrap things up in a neat package, but almost lets you decide for yourself what happens – at least until last year, when the third film, Before Midnight, came out, which again picks up their story another nine years later.
This is just a beautiful, romantic film, laced with poignancy and regret, as well as the anticipation that the two feel upon meeting each other again after having such an effect on each other. If you like films with more talk than action, that make you really feel like you are there in the moment watching two people getting to know each other again, then I would definitely recommend this. But watch the first one beforehand!
Year of release: 2004
Director: Richard Linklater
Producers: Richard Linklater, John Sloss, Anne Walker-McBay, Isabelle Coulet
Writers: Richard Linklater, Julie Delphy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan
Two young people meet on a train in Europe, get off the train together in Vienna and spend the night walking around the city, talking and gradually falling in love. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delphy) feel an instant connection, and as they get to know each other, their attraction grows, but they both know that at the end of their one night together, they must decide whether to see each other again, despite the fact that he lives in America and she lives in France, or whether they should agree not to keep in touch, and just have the memory of one wonderful night. And that’s more or less it.
It’s been a while since I watched this film, but I enjoyed it just as much second time around. I can see why some people didn’t like it – it’s basically an hour and 40 minutes of people talking. However, the backdrop is gorgeous – it definitely made me want to visit Vienna – and the conversations range from mundane to profound subjects, as they muse about life, love and everything in between. It did remind me of being that age – Jesse and Celine are in their early 20s – and feeling both full of hope and full of fear about what lies ahead. Neither are too sure what they want to do with their lives, and they open up to each other about their insecurities, as they explore the city.
Hawke and Delphy are great together; they are basically on screen the whole time, although they do meet and interact with other people. The chemistry between them is wonderful (particularly an early scene in a record shop, where the attraction and shyness that they both simultaneously feel is almost palpable), and my goodness, the amount of dialogue is immense, when you consider that most of the film is centred around their ongoing conversations. Yet it all feels natural and spontaneous. They really capture that feeling of meeting someone for the first time, and just feeling that there is something there between you.
I wouldn’t recommend this film to everyone; if you like action or heavy drama, then you might not like it…but if you like romance – real, believable romance, rather than hearts and flowers rom-com romance – then I’d definitely suggest giving this a try.
Year of release: 1995
Director: Richard Linklater
Producers: John Sloss, Gregory Jacobs, Wolfgang Ramml, Gernot Schaffler, Anne Walker-McBay, Ellen Winn Wendl
Between the Pages 