THE third in Richard Linklater’s film chronology about Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) – whose brief relationship began in “Before Sunrise” (1995) then resumed in “Before Sunset” (2004) – begins with Jesse putting his 14-year old son on a plane from Greece to the US to rejoin his mom from whom Jesse has long been divorced.

Now with twin daughters, Jesse and Celine are enjoying stimulating table talk and Greek cuisine during an intelligent, passionate idyll holiday among friends on a Peloponnese island. Their interaction is a delight to watch.

It’s all too good to last. The film’s second half is essentially a two-hander in a hotel room that friends have given them as a departure gift. It’s so easy for a single remark to sour a deep passion.

The screenplay by Linklater, Hawke and Delpy is perceptive, clever, witty, compassionate, magnificent. Long on dialogue, light on action, it leads us through delectable locations and joyous emotions. Once again, Hawke and Delpy generate superb chemistry. We yearn for delight and fulfilment always to nourish their relationship. And when it begins to crumble, we wish it might be otherwise while knowing that the film will be incomplete without something to jolt us from complacency.

Will the rift heal? We should hope to be around a decade hence for the same creative team to give us an answer.

At Palace Electric