Before Sunrise: No Country for Old Men?

[John Cole]

Perhaps it's my age, but after watching Before Sunrise for the first time the other night, the lines from Yeats' poem came into my head: "That is no country for old men. The young in one another's arms, birds in the trees...." I liked the acting, but I just couldn't stand to listen to them.

After reading opinions here, I expected to love it, and two of my favorite films--My Dinner with Andre and My Night at Maud's--concern little more than people talking, but in those films I'm fascinated by what they talk about.

In My Dinner with Andre, Wally and Andre balance each other, much like Ralph and Alice Kramden. It seemed to me, and I know this is a bad analogy, Before Sunrise featured an entire conversation between Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton without the humor.

However, I have the sequel here, so I'm going to give it a shot, hoping the years have matured them.