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Before Sunrise
Columbia Pictures


8.0

based on 18 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 21 votes
Read user comments
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FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R

Starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Erni Mangold, and Dominik Castell

A romantic look at the relationship between an American traveler and a French grad student who decide to spend a day together in Vienna.

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Richard Linklater Kim Krizan
DIRECTED BY:	Richard Linklater
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 6, 2001 Video: January 12, 1999 Theatrical: January 27, 1995
RUNNING TIME:	105 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Austria / Switzerland

Silver Berlin Bear (Best Director), 1995 Berlin International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Before Sunrise speaks as much to the mind as to the heart, and much of what it says is likely to strike a responsive chord -- a rare and special accomplishment for any motion picture.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

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.

100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Christopher Harris

Before Sunrise is a film that first startles you with its simplicity, then bowls you over with its complexity.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

If Linklater goes to a bit of an extreme here, it's in making both characters so intelligent and sincere, so ardent and giving, that they seem a little too good to believe.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Richard Linklater goes Hollywood (1995) -- triumphantly and with an overall intelligence, sweetness, and romantic simplicity that reminds me of wartime weepies like The Clock.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Watching and listening to these two is a charming experience; their conversation has the ring of veracity, and rarely does the viewer's interest stray.

Empire Ian Nathan

The overall effect is too intelligent to be soppy and too damn good to be ignored.

Washington Post Hal Hinson

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.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The charm -- the midsummer enchantment -- never feels forced; it steals up and wins you. A true romance.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Before Sunrise is so much like real life - like a documentary with an invisible camera - that I found myself remembering real conversations I had experienced with more or less the same words.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are attractive stars, but what's most appealing about the picture is the value it puts on sharing ideas and feelings through language.

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

Delpy and Hawke begin to grow on you and Linklater and his actors achieve a point midway through the film when the characters are so attractive and smart and emotionally daring that you'll be happy to spend the night with them.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

What Mr. Linklater does best here is to come up with conversational gambits that have just the right fancifulness to suit this situation.

TV Guide Staff(Not credited)

The weight of the film rests on the shoulders of Hawke and Delpy, and they're both remarkable.

Los Angeles Times Peter Rainer

There's nothing much to the movie, except for the amiability of the actors and the layers of feeling Linklater provides, but that's just almost enough.

Variety Todd McCarthy

While pic remains sympathetic and appealing, the endless dialogue and repetitive settings become wearing through the couple's one long night together, and the artifice of the premise may contribute to the difficulty the film has in coming to romantic life.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Sunrise feels more like an absorbing experiment than a supple success.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

gargaro j gave it a0:
Worst movie EVER! Don't care about these insanely boring characters or their stupid conversations. Put me out of my misery.

sarah f gave it a0:
I would rather have you poop in my mouth than to have to watch this again

Jerry B. gave it a10:
One of the greatest movies ever made! The scene in the music booth is priceless!

George B. gave it a10:
The best romantic movie of all time. The only possible reaction to it is "why did that never happen to me?". How did it miss the BBC's top 100?

Richard T. gave it a2:
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.

David S. gave it a10:
I'm an old fogie but this film brought me back to being 23 again. This is thw best romantic movie I've ever seen. (It puts An Affair to Remember to shame) And the sequel Before Sunset is almost as great.

raul s. gave it a10:
If someone ever had or someone never wanted a night like this one in the movie...just tell me so I can be gelous...it's a perfect movie to watch by yourslef, alone, and hope you will someday be at least close to a night like that one and to fealings like both characters shared.

Before Sunrise Columbia Pictures

Before Sunrise
Columbia Pictures