Before Midnight (2013)

This is most likely the last installment in a trilogy that began with 'Before Sunrise', where Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a young American in Paris, meets Celine (Julie Delpy), a Parisian woman.  They talk all night and clearly have a thing for each other, but the sun comes up and they go their separate ways.  Nine years later they meet again in 'Before Sunset', and while they have both moved on with their lives, it is very clear that the spark between them has not been extinguished by time.

That is the set up to 'Before Midnight'--which you should definitely not see unless you and seen the other two, and even then, you might want to think twice about it unless you are happily ensconced in a very long term relationship.  Otherwise it will definitely scare you, and not in a helpful way.  These people are having a serious middle of their marriage mud slinging fest that is painful to watch.  The difficult thing is that it certainly rings true--Jesse keeps his temper better than most, and Celine is witchier than most, but on the whole it really is believable.  Which does not make any of it easier to take in. 

I think these linked movies are a very rare body of work--they stand alone, but together they are a powerful commentary on the long lasting attraction that people have for each other.  I have a co-worker who had a love-of-her-life relationship in high school, but they got separated by circumstances post-graduation--she went off to college, he signed up for the military without contacting her.  It was the era that pre-dated cell phones, email, and social networking, and when he disappeared, she figured she had been ditched, and married someone else.  Then, 30 years down the road, both of them divorced, they met again--and married.  So it truly does happen to people, over and over again, that the loves of their youth follow them well into middle age--we just don't usually have a fictional film account describing it.