Below is a structured way to think about the relationship between Oh, Hi! (2025) and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995). The short answer is that Oh, Hi! deliberately echoes the earlier film’s “two-people-alone-for-one-night” template, but then bends (or even breaks) that template for comic-thriller effect, so it functions more as a playful subversion than a straight retelling.
1. Core setup: an intimate, time-boxed encounter
| Element | Before Sunrise | Oh, Hi! |
|---|---|---|
| “Two-hander” focus | Jesse and Céline meet as strangers on a train and spend ~14 hours together in Vienna. | Iris and Isaac, already four months into a situationship, take a weekend cabin trip meant to cement (or test) their bond people.com. |
| Real-time feel | Plot is almost entirely dialogue-driven, unfolding in (near) real time as they wander the city en.wikipedia.org. | First half also relies on extended, single-location dialogue; the second half escalates into farce once Iris keeps Isaac hand-cuffed www.cosmopolitan.com. |
| ticking clock | Dawn train departure forces an end. | Isaac’s “12-hour” captivity and later a literal ambulance clock provide the deadline www.cosmopolitan.com. |
Take-away: both films foreground an intense, time-limited conversation between two young adults, inviting viewers to watch a relationship crystallize (or crack) almost in real time.
2. Thematic rhymes—and deliberate reversals
| Before Sunrise motif | How Oh, Hi! mirrors or flips it |
|---|---|
| Strangers finding connection — The romance is nascent, filled with possibility. | Situationship defining itself — The pair already have history; the weekend forces a D.T.R. (“define-the-relationship”) showdown. |
| Philosophical wandering talk about love, death, fate. | Relationship autopsy talk under literal restraint; the same big questions get raised, but in a satirical pressure-cooker. |
| Mutual agency — both decide to seize the night. | Power imbalance — Iris’s decision to keep Isaac tied up weaponizes the intimate setting. |
| Bittersweet, open ending — Will they meet again? | Ambiguous ending — After the crash and ambulance scene, it’s unclear if they’ll reconcile time.com. |
3. Stylistic nods audiences (and at least one reviewer) have spotted
- Marketing blurbs and festival chatter called Oh, Hi! a “Before Sunrise-inspired adventure romance” filmmakersalliance.org.
- Both films keep the supporting cast minimal so the camera lingers on two leads’ faces and rhythms of speech.
- Sophie Brooks’ direction favors long, handheld takes in the cabin’s open kitchen and porch—visually reminiscent of Linklater’s strolling Steadicam work in Vienna, before the plot pivots to broader framing once chaos erupts.
4. Where Oh, Hi! decisively diverges
- Genre shift: Linklater’s film is a pure talk-drama; Brooks grafts on dark-comedy and quasi-thriller beats (kidnapping, Wiccan “memory potion,” car crash).
- Tone: Before Sunrise is earnest and tender; Oh, Hi! is self-aware, often farcical, even mocking of modern dating tropes.
- Moral center: Linklater leaves both characters sympathetic; Brooks intentionally makes Iris’s behavior ethically dubious, inviting discomfort rather than nostalgia.
- Cultural context: 1995’s romantic ideal of spontaneous connection versus 2025’s anxiety over commitment-phobia, hookup culture and the hazards of blurred boundaries.
5. Verdict
Calling Oh, Hi! a straight “retelling” of Before Sunrise overstates the case. It is better understood as:
- A structural homage — two characters, one limited window, dialogue-heavy introspection.
- A thematic remix — swapping optimism for insecurity, mutual discovery for one-sided coercion.
- A commentary on how dating norms have evolved in 30 years: where Linklater asked, “Can strangers fall in love overnight?”, Brooks asks, “Can near-strangers even agree on what they are—without things getting messy, ridiculous, or dangerous?” So, Oh, Hi! is less a retelling and more a knowing mirror held up to Before Sunrise—reflecting the same narrative skeleton but distorting it to diagnose 2020s relationship angst.