The first time I saw this film, the very first scene where Jesse drops his son off at the airport brought me to tears, but I felt a little disconnected from the rest of the film. I still recognized it as an extremely well-written and well-acted piece, of course, but compared to the warmth and romance of the first two installments, this one left me feeling somewhat cold and distant. I was young and had never had a serious relationship and had no frame of reference to connect this film to my life.

Tonight, this film absolutely fucking devastated me. I haven't cried after a movie this hard in a long time, so obviously, something has changed in me since that last time I saw this film. Of course, I'm quite a few years older now than I was then, and I'm six years into my first real adult relationship, but even given these factors, I can't quite pinpoint exactly why I was so affected by this film. It doesn't necessarily feel like a fear that my current relationship will someday end in the same kind of anger, sadness and resentment that Jesse and Celine's possibly does here; I'm incredibly happy with my fiancée and don't feel any of the pressures or strains on our relationship that are described here. So then why did I immediately choke up when attempting to discuss the film with him immediately after we finished it? I honestly am not really sure.

I will say, however, that while technically Linklater and Hawke and Delpy have left the door open for future installments in this series, this film has such a tone of finality that it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if another sequel never materializes. Maybe that's actually why I felt the way I did after finishing this one: The first time I watched it, I maybe held out some small hope that Jesse and Celine would reconcile their differences and stay together, but now I'm significantly less sure if they could -- or should. The sadness that is present on Delpy's face throughout the film is just so permanent; that coupled with the Greek setting surrounded by crumbling ruins, and now it just feels like their relationship is definitely over, and they both know it well before the climatic fight that defines this film. While Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are films that are all about living in the moment, Before Midnight is very much a film about the seemingly ancient past, and two people desperately trying to cling to what brought them together all those years ago.

I don't know, maybe I'm rambling now, but all I know is that this film has made me feel things that I didn't feel the first time I watched it, and that's part of its magic, isn't it?