Watching Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy has been an interesting experience.  By the way, I have no idea if that is the collective name for the series of movies called Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013).  If it is not, then it should be, but I am not going to research it.  I also do not think it matters much that I watched them out of order.  I found the middle one of these films, spaced nine years apart each time, by finding it on a list of movies under ninety minutes.  Because I do not like to leave a task unfinished, I felt compelled to view the others.  They are also easy enough to take them outside of the intended chronological order because they are simple (sometimes frustratingly so) stories.  Yet, as I have also indicated in talking about the first two, I had a strong emotional reaction to them.  With this last one, Before Midnight, I felt the same things, but for different reasons.

Unlike its predecessors, though again well Before Midnight, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) begins with his son, Hank (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), his child from a previous marriage, instead of with his series love and current wife, Céline (Julie Delpy).  Jesse is dropping off Hank at the airport in Greece where they had been spending the summer together before the teenager is sent back to his mother in the United States.  Upon returning to the car where Céline is waiting with their twin daughters, Jesse starts fretting about whether he is being a good father to Hank.  Céline is sympathetic, both of them having a great relationship with the young man.  One of the big problems is that Jesse’s ex-wife is still bitter with him over his leaving her for Céline, which you can see happen at the end of the previous film.  Céline wonders if Jesse is blaming her for the fact that they are separated from Hank since they live in Paris and not the United States.  This is not the only strain.  She is wondering about whether she should take a new job working for a person that she despises.  She has been a social crusader, but this opportunity would offer more money.  He cautions against it, but this turns into another source of contention, particularly when she perceives that he wants her to move to America and give up her career so that he can be closer to Hank.  This is something on which she is not keen, and during the course of their conversation on the way back to the villa where they have been staying, she wonders if this is the beginning of the end of their relationship.  She quickly recovers, saying she is only half kidding, but the matter is dropped for the moment.  Instead, after arriving at the home, Céline helps with the preparation of dinner while Jesse talks about his writing with the other guys staying there, including the aged author who owns the place, Patrick (Walter Lassally).  During their meal, the discussions range all over the philosophical spectrum, but mainly focusing on the nature of relationships.  Most of the younger people wonder about the logic of staying with one person for the entirety of their lives, including Céline and Jesse.  It is the older folks that preach a different, more settled lifestyle.  Afterwards, their two Greek friends, Ariadni (Athina Rachel Tsangari) and Stefanos (Panos Koronis), have purchased for Céline and Jesse a getaway in a hotel on the coast, promising to watch their daughters so that they can have some time to themselves.  They walk to this location, which is an excuse for another long section of dialog that is a trademark of the series.  In other words, things appear normal, until they get to their room.  I will talk more about this in a moment, but for now just know that this was the most uncomfortable I felt watching any of these films.  It begins with them moving towards sex, which is fine since they are married (unlike previous installments), except for the unnecessary on-screen nudity.  It stretched on for a gratuitous amount of time.  Yet, before it can go any further, Céline receives a call from Hank, who is checking in to let them know that he completed the first leg of his travels and is okay.  He hangs up with his step-mother before Jesse can speak to his son, and once more the worries about whether he is being a good father resurface.  This turns into a major argument between the two as not only does Céline feel that she is under appreciated for everything she has sacrificed over the last nine years, but Jesse feels the same way.  They also do not argue in a respectful manner, and just when you think things might be returning to normal, they begin accusing one another of infidelity.  It finally ends with Céline saying she is no longer in love with Jesse, and walks out the door.  After a few minutes, he finds her alone at a café along the water.  She is not inclined to interact with him, but he insists on sitting down next to her.  To try and cheer her up, he pretends he is from the future and tells her that everything is going to be okay.  He says that he met her eighty-year-old self, who had given him a letter to read to her at this point in time.  It seems to work, eventually, and their differences appear to be solved as the film comes to an end.

There were a few moments that shocked me in specifically Catholic ways while watching Before Midnight.  In general, I did not enjoy all the arguing, though there is nothing special about that for people of the Faith.  Christian and non-Christian couples alike fight.  It is unfortunate aspect of relationships, and as I understand it, one of the keys to surviving these moments is to learn how to not only how to have disagreements, but to recover from them.  I would think this involves avoiding saying the kinds of things they do to each other in that hotel room, but since I am not married, I lack the requisite experience to definitively say what is best.  From the point of view of my Faith, the worst part comes when they visit an ancient Byzantine chapel and talk in a lewd fashion about sex.  While they do not pretend to believe in God, even Jesse is shocked by some of Céline’s actions and words.  At the heart of their issues, though, is a question of whether they have changed since the day they married.  This is something I discussed a little with one of my house guests after it ended.  In reacting to the film, she asked whether I am a different person than I was ten years ago.  After a short period of rumination, I said yes, my Faith being at the top of my mind in thinking about how I answered this question.  It has been a little over ten years since I graduated with my doctorate from Loyola University Chicago, and I was not the practicing Catholic then that I am now, though I did go to Mass regularly.  A lot of this has to do with the people with which I regularly interacted.  This is not to say that one group of friends is better than the other, but their priorities are certainly different.  God has often spoken to me through the people I have encountered in my life, and he was practically shouting at me when I returned to Florida upon the completion of my degree.  And this is a big part of being a practicing Christian: that you keep growing.  Faith that is stagnant is not really Faith at all.  Your relationship with God should always be changing and deepening, and acknowledging the experience is what makes it lasting.  While what is going on with Céline and Jesse is not spoken of in Christian terms, by any means, the same idea applies.  They are looking back on their lives, seeing what they were, and not liking what they have become.  They are not understanding the gift that is how they have developed as a couple, but luckily pull their relationship out of the nose dive it began taking with their hotel argument.

That fight is why Before Midnight is my least favorite of the three.  I get that no relationship is perfect, but I did not enjoy that they have to learn this fact in the most painful way.  It is also the most vulgar of the series.  The talk about sex, and what you see in the hotel room, is all a bit much.  At least they are married, which gives it some legitimacy, but does it all need to be filmed?  If you watch these movies, I recommend the first two, unless you want to be stressed.