Before We Go (2015)

New York at night, a guy and a girl story. More beautiful is the script, the simple dialog and smart direction. Alice Eve is convincing. She doesn't overdo it but does it just right. Chris Evans has exceeded my expectations as an actor, as a director. Watch this with your loved one on a quiet night with a bottle of wine. You will not regret it. This is a simple story told beautifully. Do not watch this if need complex emotions that makes you wanna kill yourself. Chris makes you wanna write your own ending to his beautifully told story, letting you speculate what this might have been. That's the beauty of this film. Waiting for more such movies from this team. Adios.

Before We Go tries so hard to capture the style of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise it plays more like a script read-through than a film with any genuine warmth and emotion.  The opening premise of damsel stuck in the city is nicely handled (several scenes are oddly reminiscent of Adventures in Babysitting), but the more the film tries to create an emotional connection between Chris Evans' and Alice Eve's characters the more they seem like brother and sister.



The movie is not the kind of romance that shows to have a marriage of happily forever after, but instead it shows the deepest life moments in such a few hours. Chris' acting was great and Alice's was good, but not so great since she had to use her American accent. The movie is also the first movie to be directed by Chris Evans, which is pretty cool to see. But to be honest, Before We Go is such a good movie. It's very realistic to me, and it brought a message for me that one can actually love more than one person in this world.

I can say Chris evans played save by doing this kind of movie. And I have soft spot for this kind of movie, thanks to Linklater. When the film debuted at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, the immediate comparison was Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, but Before We Go’s darker New York setting reflects more mature characters who are perhaps more jaded about life and love than Jesse and Celine were when they first met. Brooke’s marriage might be in trouble, Nick is still recovering from a recent heartbreak.

What made Linklater's film(s) work so well, and the characters feel so real, was that we learned everything about them. Celine and Jesse's journey through Vienna was partially about escaping their respective breakups, but their discussions centered on all the things people connect over — love, life, religion, philosophy — and made them complex, compelling people you wanted to spend time with and know more about. By contrast, Brooke and Nick are not even half as interesting. "Before We Go" is like going on a date with someone who only talks about their ex; indeed, much of Brooke and Nick's time together is spent focused on people who have hurt them, so when we're supposed to believe during the third act that they are being drawn to each other, it's a bit mysterious why they find each other interesting, beyond having a mutual shoulder to cry on. Their passions, motivations, dreams and thoughts never surface to help suggest why there is something more to their brief nighttime odyssey.

VERDICT 7/10