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It's in limited release, they just added another 62 screens....and one of them is finally in my city, so I caught it earlier today. Definitely approachable if you aren't familiar with the film's prequel, but if you ever discovered the original on cable (as many did) then it's certainly definitely required viewing. I hope that interest in the new film will build support for a new DVD release of Before Sunrise, since the original one is pretty sucky (no Dolby, no extras or commentaries, on a single layer disc).

And if you are the type that needs a reviewer's assurance, it's at 96% on RottenTomatoes.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/before_sunset/

115 out of 120 reviews are positive. A pretty rare thing, though if you aren't up for a very talky semi-romantic film then you should probably just take a pass.

Here's some brief impressions (not really a review) I wrote for elsewhere:

When I first heard about this project, I was pretty furious. The prequel (Before Sunrise, 1995) has always been one of my favorite films and probably the only romance film I really ever liked (much less loved). It's a crime if you never caught the original, which was about an American and French student meeting on a train to Vienna and spending the evening together, developing a very strong bond with each other but being forced to separate at the night's end. The ambiguous "Will they meet again?" ending of Sunrise was perfect because it engaged the viewer's imagination after the film had ended, and I thought it was pretty cheesy to go back and tack on something. After thinking on it and reading some reviews from the film festivals, I started to become cautiously optimistic. It took an excruciatingly long time for this independent film to reach the screens of Jacksonville, and now that it finally has I can say that this film is a great followup (it feels dirty to call it a sequel).

It's not just the same film from 9 years ago with a different setting and new dialogue, it has a style that's pretty different. In Sunrise, the city of Vienna was more or less the main third character, with its citizens and landmarks dominating the film. But with Sunset, the city of Paris fades into the background. The third dominating presence here is the single night that the two characters spent together in the previous film. It's not dwelt on for all 80 minutes, but unconsciously it is under the surface all the time. It very much reminds me of the awkwardness of running into old girlfriends, and how you're never sure whether you should just try and have a polite, normal conversation or whether you should bring up or reminisce about the old times you spent together. Even when you both try to keep it formal and distant and pretend that you're just average acquaintences, the gravity of the past is still there. Of course this is cinema, so our two protagonists do eventually begin to deal with how their Vienna night affected them, and that's where some of the best dramatic moments come from (Julie Delpy delivers one particularly strong monologue during a car ride).

I have to say that I liked the original film better, but loved this one as well. I could definitely imagine some people prefering Before Sunset, since it's a bit less idealized and more mature. This will be the first time in years that I actually go see a film twice in the theatres, so that probably says a lot....

 

[etiolate]

Before Sunrise is a good flick, but I don't know of the sequel is playing here.