From a major production company (Castle Rock) and pushed into cinemas by Rank, Before Sunrise is a brave notion. Cutting against the grain of blockbuster film-making, Linklater gives us a film about people who do little more than talk; for that alone it is to be cherished. The script, by Kim Krizan, later reworked in rehearsal by the actors, reveals an exciting grasp of language. The too-good-looking Hawke is something of a revelation, delivering his long speeches with the machine gun rattle of no-one so much as Linklater's pal, Quentin Tarantino. It's a performance that will do nothing but good for his pretty boy career. Julie Delpy has nothing much to prove, having worked with Godard, Schlondorff and most memorably appeared in the great Kieslowski's Three Colours White. She is effortless, unexpectedly foul-mouthed, and entirely credible.

So where does it falter? The viewer cannot help but imagine that the Richard Linklater behind those acutely observed ensemble pieces Slacker and Dazed and Confused would never have made the mistakes of this one. He would have been content to simply allow his principals to talk, and when that's exactly what they do it's a delight. The film has spells in which nothing much happens. It's when outsiders are introduced into the mix that alarm bells start ringing. Sometimes it works - the pair of actors who invite Jesse and Celine to their show are a delight - but a belly dancer the couple stumble across in the street, a man who writes poems for money and, most cringe-making of all, an extraordinarily crass fortune teller, beggar belief. Likewise, although Vienna looks stupendous throughout the film never tells us anything about it in the way that, say, Slacker tells us about Austin, Texas. It could be any European city.