When I first saw this movie years ago, I loved and enjoyed every moment and every word of it, beginning to end. Tonight, I found the first half hour mostly banal and boring, due in part, I think, to the fact that I already knew the ending. But then, something funny happened. It drew me in, and by the time that ending came, I was breaking into tears. I think I am a Richard Linklater fan.

What else can I say? How can I explain? The premise of the story is so incredibly simple, that trying to summarize it does not do justice to its depth and power. Two people meet on a train and spend the night wandering around the city of Vienna. That's the movie. Nothing to see here. No laser blasters, conspiratorial plots, bitter betrayals, or shocking revelations during the final act which call into question everything seen up until that point. Really.

It's so random, so human, and so honest. The film itself could easly be an episode of the "great tv show" idea described by Ethan Hawke's character at the beginning.

Life is transitory. There is nothing that stays constant, except the inevitability of change. But what if, for just a brief fleeting moment, two people could step outside the mundane reality of the world, and exist in a shared bubble, free of the constraints, assumptions, and obligations that plague life, not by elimiting these limits (which is impossible as long as life continues), but by becoming so acutely and intensely aware of them that the possibility of transcendence occurs anew in each passing moment? If so, could such a state ever be sustainable?

Alas, the very nature of sustainablity, by definition, implies stagnation -- conformance to a predetermined path of consciousness. Once this path is set, the spontaneity of the moment is lost, and with it, the very purpose for which the bond was created. Therein lies the heartbreaking realization that this movie reaches.

I know the last two paragraphs made no sense, because not even I can understand what they are talking about, even though I wrote them just a moment ago. This further reinforces the thesis I can no longer comprehend, because to comprehend it, one must understand that nothing is comprehensible.

Oh, why can't I just write a normal movielog entry review, like a normal person? lol. This whole bit, which started out well enough, is beginning to drown in utter narcissism, which is unfortunate, because it truly was a great movie. Better experienced than explained. Watch it, and enjoy it. That's all.