Smith's Verdict

Smith’s Verdict: ****

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

The films in the romance genre are a mixed bag. Once in a while you get a good/great one, but for the most part, they’re made up of the most annoying clichés and generically ineffective dialogue. Highlighting fresh young talents doesn’t do the job on its own. A good script and genuine chemistry among the romantic leads helps make a romance work. This is where “Before Sunrise” comes in.

This is unlike most romances, in that it takes place in just a single day. As a sigh of relief, the story is very simple—here’s a man and woman, they meet, they enjoy each other’s company, and so they spend the night together before one of them has to leave. That is such a relief because it keeps itself contained to these limitations and makes the most of them. This short-lived romance just develops through this long night with no standard occurrences you see in most movies in the genre.

I shouldn’t even use the words “romance” and “couple,” since the alleged two people are only together for 24 hours (actually 14, I think). It’s just these two people meet, they engage in a friendly conversation, they decide they want to spend more time together before they separate, they have a most pleasant night together, and when they leave, they realize they weren’t ready for this. And that’s it. No melodrama. No misunderstandings. No bullies. There’s hardly even an agenda. We just enjoy the company of twenty-somethings Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) as they enjoy each other’s company.

They meet on a train in Austria. Celine is a French woman returning to a university in Paris; Jesse is an American headed to Vienna for a flight back to the United States. Celine sits next to Jesse. They go to the lounge car and make conversation. It’s a real talk too that attracts them to each other, wanting them to know more about each other. If only they could continue…When they reach Vienna, Jesse comes up with a crazy idea for Celine to get off the train with him so they can be together until he catches his plane. Celine agrees.

Jesse and Celine wander the streets through the night; still talking, learning more about each other, and their relationship gets stronger as it continues. But they do their best to keep from expressing their perfect feelings for each other and just try to keep a “perfect night.” This way, they don’t get hurt. Then comes two important questions—should they sleep together that night, and will they see ever each other again after they separate? They do love each other. Should they admit that?

“Before Sunrise” relies on two important things that make it work, and they’re both great—great dialogue and great acting. The screenplay is full of sharp dialogue (this is mainly an all-talk film) and the conversations that these two people share are worth listening to because they’re smart, amusing, and actually relatable. They don’t talk about anything spectacular; they talk about love, former lovers, school, parents, truth, music, even death and reincarnation. It all seems so natural, as does the acting by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who share an excellent rapport with each other. Their unquestionable chemistry onscreen seems absolutely genuine.

Aside from the two leads, however, Richard Linklater, director and co-writer (with Kim Krizan), has to take most of the credit for the treasure that is “Before Sunrise.” It’s pure movie magic all the way through. It’s sweet, it’s convincing, and always sincere.

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Sequels are always successful when they actually continue the story. “Before Sunset” is one of those sequels. Nine years since its predecessor, “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” continues with the growing relationship of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), who are or aren’t meant to be together.

In “Before Sunrise,” the likable American man Jesse met the attractive, appealing French woman Celine on a train to Vienna, and talked her into getting off the train with him so they can spend the night together before he left for home. It was a perfect night that ended with their departing of each other. They arranged for them to meet in one year, but now in “Before Sunset,” nine years have passed and their rendezvous hasn’t occurred…until now.

Jesse is in Paris representing his novel, “This Time,” which is a fictionalized retelling of his and Celine’s night together. He is surprised to see Celine at the book signing. They encounter again and their feelings from before have come back.

Jesse has about an hour before his flight for America takes off and he and Celine decide to spend it together. And here, “Before Sunset” doesn’t cheat. It takes place in real time. It doesn’t transition to a different scene and a different conversation. We’re always in the company of these two as they go from place to place, and as they have conversation after conversation.

They share the same kind of whimsical dialogue shown in the original story. But this time around, they also share conversations that are darker. The question of love comes back into place, the way their lives have turned around since their night together has sad surprises, and the question of happiness is complicated for them. And then you get that pivotal thought if these two are meant to be together. Has fate brought them back for a second chance? They know they love each other, but can they act on these feelings?

“Before Sunset” is a remarkable technical and acting achievement, as director Richard Linklater has long shots (about five or six minutes long) as Hawke and Delpy continue to engage in discussion. This cannot be easy, but luckily, the actors are excellent here. They were great in the original film; they’re even better here. They know their characters inside and out, and at no moment are we seeing actors. We see Jesse and Celine together again. And it also helps that Hawke and Delpy also co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater and Kim Krizan.

The film has a great ending that leaves things open for interpretation until another sequel, which I seriously hope comes around because I want to see more of these two people interact with each other. And who knows? Maybe things will be better for them. Together. I really hope so. These two movies—“Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset”—are two of the best romance films I have ever seen and there’s enough intelligence for a third entry.

Smith’s Verdict: ****

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

There are so many things that “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” pull off greatly that it’s going to be difficult to name them all. This is one of those movies that just strike me as perfect. Everything this movie throws at you, you buy, you believe, you care, you admire, and in the end, you love. It comes from the idea that if an alien (or many aliens, for that matter) came to visit Earth with no plans of destruction or annihilation of mankind whatsoever, then it could be a friend to us if we let it. This is a movie about a lonely little boy who comes across a stranded alien and forms his own friendship with it. It’s the idea that could have been a tamed throwaway family picture, but it’s instead structured as something that becomes an instant family classic. It’s a wonderful, wonderful movie.

“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” begins in a forest as an alien ship lands and these pudgy, ugly little alien botanists come to bring back a couple of plants that they come across. But a group of people arrives with flashlights and chase down one of the little creatures. They miss it, but it misses its ride home. So the thing is stranded on Earth and makes its way to the nearest suburb, where it comes across a ten-year-old lonely, friendless boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Elliott is at first scared at first sight of this creature, but becomes more curious and leads it to his house and bedroom (with Reese’s Pieces), where he decides to keep it and take care of it. He lets his teenage brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton) and his five-year-old sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) in on the secret, as they give it the name “E.T.” (it’s short for extra-terrestrial, get it?), decide to keep it hidden from the authorities and their mother (Dee Wallace), and eventually come up with a plan to help it get back home.

That’s the storyline and unless you feel sympathy for the creature when its life is in jeopardy, the whole movie could fall apart. But E.T. is one of the most convincing special effects creatures I’ve ever seen. It’s so convincing that I constantly had to remind myself that it was an effect. On screen, E.T. has a distinct look, a curious personality, imitation of human speech, and is completely lovable. It’s a triumph of special effects done right.

Steven Spielberg is the director (and co-producer) of this movie and it’s reportedly his most personal work. He pays attention to detail. He tells a story. He makes us care. He originally got this idea from looking back on his childhood and remembering to have imagined an alien companion during his parents’ divorce as a child. During delays of making his film “1941,” Spielberg wondered what would happen if he brought that little creature to the screen. He expressed the idea to screenwriter Melissa Matheson, who wrote the script for “E.T.”

Spielberg’s direction and Matheson’s writing really bring the story to life and keep to every little detail. Where do I even start? First, there’s the idea of keeping the adults’ faces obscure until they take over in the third act of the movie keeps the focus on the kids—Elliott, Michael, Gertie, and their friends. (The mother of the three kids is the only adult fully seen until later.) The adults are mainly government agents who know there’s an alien somewhere in the area and constantly spy on the neighborhood to track it down. They want to study it, while the kids simply want to help it. They make for effective villains, though they may not be villains in some people’s eyes. Even one of these adults—not given a name, but is dubbed “Keys” because of his jangling keys attached to his belt—isn’t a bad guy. He’s just very interested in this incredible discovery. Who wouldn’t be?

The movie gets the family life just right. Elliott, Michael, and Gertie are the children of a failed marriage and while Michael has his buddies to fool around with and Gertie is too innocent to worry about not having a father figure around, Elliott has nothing to fall back on, until E.T. comes along and Elliott feels a friendship, as well as a need and responsibility to keep it safe. Also, the way the house is lit at dinnertime, the consistent mess of Elliott’s bedroom, and the relationship between these kids and their mother has a natural feel.

Also, the way these kids talk is absolutely right. When we first see Elliott, he’s constantly yelling for the attention of Michael and his three friends while they’re playing a dungeons-and-dragons game in the kitchen—they talk over one another, sometimes argue, and mock each other, just like how any group of teenage boys would act. The little sister Gertie also constantly says things that any kid of that age would say if she saw an alien (“I don’t like his feet,” “Is he a boy or a girl,” etc.).

The chase scene, in which the adults chase the kids on their bicycles, that leads to the final emotional moment as E.T. must return with his own family is thrilling and it succeeds in fulfilling childhood dreams—haven’t you ever daydreamed about your own bicycle flying? That’s right—E.T. makes the kids fly on their bikes and it’s a wonderfully pleasing moment. It’s one of the most magical moments I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Oh, and of course in that sequence, there has to be at least one kid who’s scared of heights—“Tell me when it’s over!”

All of the young actors are spot-on. Henry Thomas as Elliott possibly delivers one of the best child performances seen in a movie. He’s perfectly natural, always convincing, has a real energy to himself, and when all is said and done, he’s still a kid. He’ll get greedy, he’ll get whiny, he’ll get touched, he’ll get excited, etc. Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore are good, and the other three young actors playing the friends—K.C. Martel, C. Thomas Howell, and Sean Frye—are appealing.

What have I left out? The memorable music score by John Williams, sequences involving Elliott showing E.T. some random things in his bedroom, Elliott’s emotional (and telepathic) connection with E.T., the moment where we fear the worst for poor E.T. and we actually feel something because of that, and the excellent final moment when E.T. bids farewell to his human friends and finally to his best friend Elliott. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” mixes innocence, charm, adventure, joyfulness, and suspense, and the result is what reminded me of why I love movies.