Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 71 Ratings

  • Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
  • Summary: A romantic look at the relationship between an American traveler and a French grad student who decide to spend a day together in Vienna.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. It's a lovely and wistful celebration of youth, time and moments of connection -- and about the experience of living in the midst of a simple, perfect day that you know you'll remember for the rest of your life.
  2. 80
    Though Linklater allows the movie to wander, he never allows the pace to slacken, and more often than not he finds some unexpected bit of found poetry or cultural kitsch to make the digressions worthwhile.
  3. Reviewed by: Ian Nathan
    80
    The overall effect is too intelligent to be soppy and too damn good to be ignored.
  4. If his first two films were about emotional mutes, then Before Sunrise is the tale of two kids who won't shut the hell up.

See all 18 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 23
  3. Negative: 4 out of 23
  1. Beautiful, one of the best films I have ever seen. The naive optimism of love and intelligent honest dialogue was amazing. Anyone who has fallen in love and has been optimistic of the future will love it. Expand
  2. In Before Sunrise we have an intriguing and alluring physical attraction and intellectual interest between two characters that “destiny” has uas united on a train. We follow them through an exhilaratingly spontaneous evening as their youthfully curious sensual dynamism develops. Their dialogue is interesting and sincere, and their attraction is sweet and sort of nostalgia-evoking. For a slow and very talky romantic movie, I really enjoyed it. Expand
  3. A thoughtful film carried by it's natural dialogue before sunrise feels like an experiment that worked for most of it's running time. In parts my mind started to dwindle but my attention was eventually regained. The great part about the film is that it uses it's dialogue to make us feel for the characters instead of over dramatic contrived situations. The last few shots of the film have no dialogue but they are more touching then any other part of the film Expand
  4. RichardT.
    2
    This film was one of my most painful film experiences. Drenched in pop intellectual 'musings', that are delivered relentlessly (and without any visible thought or idea retreival) and interspersed with cliched spontanaity and calculated 'happenings', the film does a great job at ignornig the mundane parts of life Jesse believed in so much that he wanted to make a tv series about them! I was aware the entire time that this was a film, and that the characters were acting - it was even possible to spot the bits of the film that were improvised slightly. Despite it's wholesome intensions it's overall lack of authenticity makes it sickening. Whilst trying to explore the supposed truths and quirks about the reality of human relations it simply reinforces an unrealistc and unattainable ideal of falling in love. Expand

See all 23 User Reviews

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