Before Sunset is a cinematically picturesque and grandly natural portrayal of what human connection should look like. As the middle chapter of director-writer Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy (between Before Sunrise and Before Midnight), Sunset sees now best-selling author Jesse (Ethan Hawke) doing a reading of his book This Time at the famous Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Company. Based on his otherworldly, one-night stand with a French girl named Céline (Julie Delpy) nine years prior in Vienna—Before Sunrise’s entire plot—he secretly hopes to reel Céline back into his life through his book, and he succeeds: she shows up. After the reading ends, the pair explores Parisian sidewalks, landmarks, and smoke-filled environs, chatting away about all sorts of things, including their lives, what happened after Vienna, where they are now, how the world works, how they fit into it, etc. In an effortless way, Before Sunset mesmerizes viewers through different focal points of life in the most organic way a movie screen can, utilizing the power of its stars and unforgettably real dialogue to encapsulate various perspectives and the most romantic way love can unfold.

Before Sunset is… perfect. An hour has been spent trying to find a better descriptor, and there isn’t one. It is a masterclass in profundity, depth, and emotional variety that can only arise in those special connections most humans crave but only a few attain and even fewer maintain. While the entirety of Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy is moving, Linklater’s middle installment is, in this writer’s awestruck opinion, the magnum opus of romance because it’s both so simple yet so meaningful. Like those that came before and after, Sunset is a time-crunched conversation between its two budding lovers, where their lives elsewhere have already picked up. With Jesse, a renowned author with a wife and child, and Céline, an environmentalist in a relationship with a constantly busy photographer, their feelings surely should have dissipated after nine years.

But, as Céline herself says, “yeah, it was a slow fade”; in fact there was no fade at all. The two instantly rekindle their old, one-night-long connection. Céline immediately relaxes at Jesse’s reintroduction, shoulders dropping and eyes widening warmly as he steps out of the store with an air of trying-for-confidence in a suit and tie. They instantly jump back into conversation where they left off in Vienna—no topic is off the table. They catch each other up on their last nine years of living, what happened on the night they promised to meet up again six months after Sunrise‘s end—”… Mostly I was just mad that we hadn’t exchanged phone numbers or any information…. I remember we were both afraid that if we started writing and calling, that it would slowly, you know, fade out,” Jesse says, voice higher pitched as he shrugs his arms in defeat of past stupidity to a laughing Céline—their sex lives, what they do for work, and just about anything else. There is no filter, no awkwardness, nothing: it’s like they’ve known each other all this time, thanks in part to Delpy’s optimistically French-suave take as Céline and Hawke’s laid-back, almost kiddishly joyful take as Jesse.

Such dialogue-driven writing is what Linklater is known for. Boyhood, even over 12 years of filmmaking, Dazed and Confused, and the other two Before movies consistently follow such a pattern. Linklater utilizes the beauty of his settings—greenery, bridges, pristine architecture, and the odd lives that unfold around the protagonists—to reel viewers into the moment with Jesse and Céline. With nothing more to grasp than what they’re saying, Linklater ensures every shot is pristine while every line is memorable and natural. Even the most quotable films often have awkward lines, overblown monologues, or generic discussions, but Sunset‘s pure aversion to them is its greatest strength. As they set sail on a corny tourist boat around the Seine, one may expect the pair to profess their love, ruining their good time. Instead, a hesitant Jesse confronts their past, given that he showed up in Vienna again as they promised, while Céline didn’t: “Oh god… why weren’t you there in Vienna? Yeah, I know why, I just wish you would’ve been. Our lives might have been so much different.” Even with her grandmother’s burial falling on their promised day, such a letdown is never forgotten, especially from a hoped-for romantic partner. Jesse wrote a book about it; of course her absence comes up. It’s a human reaction to experience when faced with somebody one never thought they could get closure from. From failed marriages and relationships, global worries, their passions, and their problems, Céline and Jesse cover just about everything one could with another human being in the most grounded way possible. Linklater and his stars understand people, connection, and conversation more than well enough to sell Beyond Sunset as a real—and perhaps, at least for now, unique—almost-missed romance.

Thus, with each graceful step, confrontational monologue, or amusingly romantic or touching sequence, Before Sunset sweeps viewers whole into, well, the real world of real, unrequited, imperfect, poorly timed love. It’s touching, natural, well-paced, and deeply engaging from beginning to end—a near-impossible feat for any dialogue-centric film. Sunset is this writer’s newest favorite flick of all time, with the entire Before Trilogy taking up much brain space for the foreseeable future. For romance fans, Delpy/Hawke/Linklater fans, and those looking for a movie that feels 100% authentic from beginning to end, Before Sunset is a must-see life-changer.

Screens Monday, 6/9, 8:15 p.m. @ The Brattle Theatre
Co-presented with A.R.T.