After watching its sequel Before Sunset, I wanted to see the first part of the story. A young American (Ethan Hawke) and a young French student (Julie Delpy) meet in a train. She decides not go on to Paris as planned but step out of the train with him in Vienna and spend the evening together before his plane takes off for America. Now we follow them on a romantic adventure through Vienna. Before Sunrise is both better and worse than its sequel, Before Sunset. It is better because the director paced the movie much more effectively and used the glorious architecture of Vienna to surround the narrative with a romantic canvass.

It is worse because the writing is not as penetrating. Julie Deply was already miscast in this first movie of the sequel: here she gives a compelling performance only in two scenes, one in Vienese Coffee house and when the say good-bye to each other at the trainstation after deeply rewarding evening together in Vienna. In all other parts of the movie she comes across as a girl who tries mightily to appear profound but does not succeed. Ethan Hawke has the better lines, but also acts them much more convincinggly. The movie has some other flaws. Anyone who has ever started up a conversation with a stranger in a train will quickly recognize that the first scene is inauthentic. The two people speak after a few lines as if they had known each other for years. What the director did much better in this pre-sequel was to bring other people into the plot to introduce pauses in the conversation between the two main characters. If you speak German, you will realize that the people the pair encouters in Vienna say really funny things, adding considerable texture to the movie.