The Take
The Before Trilogy is worth watching if you want real adult relationships on screen. Linklater skips committees and gives one auteur vision across eighteen years of actual time passing.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy meet in Vienna, talk through the night, then reconvene nine and eighteen years later. The stakes rise with jobs, kids, and resentment instead of explosions.
No reset button. The third film gets brutally honest about marriage while still treating commitment as worth the work.
The Verdict
The Before Trilogy stands out as three films of actual adult conversation with real aging and stakes. Linklater's single voice across decades shows what commitment looks like when time keeps moving.
Watch it.
Common Questions
What is Before Trilogy about?
Three films tracking one couple's talks from first meeting to marriage and beyond.
Is Before Trilogy based on a true story?
No, Linklater created original stories with Hawke and Delpy.
Does the Before Trilogy end happily?
No tidy ending, just brutally honest middle-aged marriage.
