There was Before Sunrise in 1995 and Before Sunset in 2004 and now, nine years later, we have Before Midnight.

If you liked the other movies you’ll probably really enjoy seeing what’s happened to the relationship between the characters played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. In the first movie they met, very romantically, on a train to Vienna. In the second they met again in Paris. This time they are a couple, although not married, and the parents of lovely twin girls.

They’re in Greece and Hawke is saying goodbye to his son (from his first failed marriage) at the airport while Delpy and the kids are waiting in the car. Then they drive to where they are staying on some kind of writer’s retreat (Hawke is a successful writer) and dine with friends. Of course, like the other two movies, they talk endlessly: about the meaning of life, love, sex, relationships, aging and such.

This one, while still romantic, is also more realistic, but this reviewer is not sure it makes a better picture. There are no shootouts, zombies, explosions, special effects or Adam Sandler, but there is a lot of realistic drama as they examine their relationship, even having a serious argument about it.

Like the previous film, which I think is a better movie, Hawke and Delpy wrote the script with director Richard Linklater. One assumes we’ll be able to check in on them again in nine years.

Rating: four deer out of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.