It has been nine years since we last met Jesse and Celine, the French-American couple who once met on a train in Vienna. They now live in Paris with twin daughters but have spent a summer in Greece at the invitation of an author colleague of Jesse's. When the vacation is over and Jesse must send his teenage son off to the States, he begins to question his life decisions, and his relationship with Celine is at risk.
Writing
Hawke and Delpy co-wrote; every argument feels illegally personal.
Acting
The hotel fight — 30 minutes of emotional demolition derby.
Direction
Linklater's invisible hand lets performances breathe and bruise.
Director
Richard Linklater
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The entire hotel argument was shot in chronological order over two weeks, with Hawke and Delpy improvising within scripted beats.
Linklater loosely based Jesse's parental guilt on his own experience of long-distance co-parenting, making the film uncomfortably autobiographical.
US
