Before Midnight is the third installment in the story of Celine and Jessie, who meet in their early twenties on a train going from Eastern Europe through Vienna towards Paris where Celine lives.

The first film was called Before Sunrise and it depicted a ‘real time’ conversation between two people who had just met. They spontaneously get off in Vienna and since neither has enough money for accommodation – they spend the night walking the streets of Vienna, talking about … j’nais se quoi. At the end of the film, they make a lover’s pact to meet in Vienna in one year to see if the connection remained. They preferred this to trying to ‘stay in touch’.

The second film was called Before Sunset and it follows another ‘real time’ conversation between Celine and Jessie although this time, they are walking through Paris. Jessie has written a successful novel about his night spent with Celine in Vienna and has received some success.

Celine meets him after a book signing in Paris and they reconnect. The film ends enigmatically with a clear connection between the two but a lack of clarity about what is means or what will happen.

Before Midnight is all about what happens after you find ‘the one’ and the bubble of pheromones bouying you up of cloud nine – unceremoniously pops and rudely deposits you on the ground.

Celine & Jessie

Married people or those partnered up will cringe as their ‘real time’ conversation unfolds. Those perennial and eternally predictable differences between the men folk and the women folk are captured in all their glory.

If you are a woman, and you are brave – you might, I say this with great trepidation, see what you look like from your partner’s point of view – in a fight.

Uncomfortably intimate, probably because of its accuracy. Worth a look – you might see yourself.