For a film that relies almost exclusively on dialogue (the rapport of Delpy and Hawke cannot be left aside), I’m stumbling to explain it.

Hawke and Delpy play Jesse and Celine, two people who met 18 years ago, by chance, on a train from Budapest. They clicked and spent a day together, but other obligations forced them to part, agreeing to meet again in six months. Nine years later, Jesse is a renowned novelist following the publication of his book This Time, based on his day with Celine.

On tour in Paris, he delivers a reading at Shakespeare and Company and sees her in the crowd. Once again, their time together is limited, but the flame is immediately rekindled. It’s revealed that they never met after those six months; Jesse is now married, albeit unhappily, and stays with his wife because of his son. Celine is in a similarly unhappy relationship, and…

…and Midnight picks up nine years after that. Jesse and Celine are now married, living in Europe, and raising their two daughters.

Jesse is divorced from his first wife and trying to maintain a relationship with his son, who’s spent the summer with his father, and we pick up with the two at the airport. Jesse plays the overly worried father, making sure his son has enough to eat on his flight and pushing him to put down his game console and read a book and all those things parents press on their kids while they’re a hair’s breadth away from admitting that they wouldn’t themselves. Driving home with Celine and their daughters, Jesse wishes out loud that he could spend more time with his son while Celine tries to turn the discussion toward her new career.

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