Before Sunrise: parents' guide
Best for ages 15 and up. Rated R for some strong language.
A quiet, talky romance that suits thoughtful older teens; younger kids will likely be bored. An American and a French student meet on a train and spend one night walking around Vienna, talking about love, death, family and sex. There is no violence. The R rating is for language: several f-words and other swearing come up in casual conversation. Sex is discussed frankly and implied when the couple spend the night in a park, with lots of kissing but no sex scene and no nudity beyond artwork. They drink wine and smoke. Age 15 reflects the language and mature talk.
What's in it
Violence
NoneNo violence. The couple visit a cemetery for unnamed drowning victims and talk about death, but nothing violent happens on screen.
Language
ModerateStrong but occasional: roughly half a dozen f-words come up in casual conversation, along with s-words and milder insults such as dickhead. The R rating is for language alone.
Sex and nudity
ModerateFrank, extended conversations about sex and past relationships and a lot of kissing. Sex is implied when the couple lie together in a park at night, fully clothed on screen. Brief nudity appears only in artwork.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
ModerateThe pair share a bottle of wine at night and drink in a bar, and there is some cigarette smoking. No drugs, and no one is shown badly drunk.
Scary or intense scenes
NoneNothing scary. Conversations touch on death, grief and the passing of time, and the cemetery visit is reflective rather than frightening.
Worth talking about
Jesse and Celine get off a train with someone they met an hour earlier. Talk about the romance of that choice and how to think about safety with strangers.
On our lists
Similar picks around 15+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, screenwiseapp.com, bbfc.co.uk, widescreenreview.com, Wikipedia. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.