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03/16/2017 12:01 AMRated PG-13
Directed by Ry Russo-Young (Nobody Walks and You Won’t Miss Me) and based off of the well-known young adult novel of the same name by author Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall is a drama in which a young woman relives one day of her life multiple times—think Groundhog Day, but with teen angst in the place of humor.
Main character Samantha Kingston (Zoey Deutch of Everybody Wants Some and Why Him?) begins the film in voice-over, telling the audience that the present day—”Cupid Day” of her senior year in high school when anyone can have a rose delivered along with a special message to a classmate—is her last day on Earth. The unique scenario in which she finds herself, however, is that while it is her last day on Earth, she actually gets to relive that one day over and over again until she gets it right. For Samantha and viewers, finding out what the “it” is that she needs to get right is the point of the film.
The day begins with Samantha waking up to her alarm and finding a text message from her best friend, Lindsay (Halston Sage of Paper Towns and Neighbors), and an origami bird from her little sister. Samantha seems to have it all—she is beautiful, wealthy, popular, and has a very tight-knit group of friends. In fact, the relationship that she has with her three best friends is the central relationship in the film, not the one that she has with her equally popular boyfriend Rob (Kian Lawley of The Chosen and Shovel Buddies). Samantha, Lindsay, Elody (Medalion Rahimi of Extraction and TV’s The Catch), and Ally (Cynthy Wu of Kong: Skull Island and TV’s Twisted) are four nearly inseparable friends who have been close throughout all of high school—spending time together in school and out of school where sleepovers and parties are a regular part of their lives. Acting elite to everyone else is also a regular part of their time together and they go out of their way to pick on and even torment some other students, with one classmate Juliet Sykes (Elena Kampouris of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and Labor Day) bearing the brunt of the girls’ harsh snarkiness.
At the conclusion of the school day, Samantha and her three best friends spend the afternoon together getting ready for a party at the home of their classmate Kent McFuller (Logan Miller of Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and A Dog’s Purpose). Kent is a one-time friend of Samantha’s who still attempts to connect with her whenever possible despite their differences in high school social class standing. While happy to be partying there at first, the energy of the girls’ night out quickly fizzles out after discovering that Rob is wasted and after getting into a confrontation with party crasher Juliet that ends with everyone throwing their drinks on her as she runs out of the home. The night ends with the girls headed home in Lindsay’s truck when they unexpectedly get into a crash and the truck flips over.
Samantha wakes up to the same day again and relives it much the same way as she lived it the first time. When she continues to wake up to the same day over and over again, she begins to make changes to how she lives it. Some changes are subtle and small, some are deep and meaningful. Her changes depend on her mood; sometimes she goes out of her way to be kind to the people she loves and the others she encounters, while other times she goes out of her way to torment everyone around her along with herself. It is only when she realizes that her fate is intertwined with another’s fate that she realizes that she needs to make calculated changes to the way she lives the day in order to make a positive change for everyone else.
Before I Fall is dramatic and melancholy, but it is also beautiful and has a heartwarming element to it, too. Deutch plays a very real teenage girl (despite being a 20-something in real life), complete with the idea that she (and everyone else in this world) doesn’t have all the answers and makes plenty of mistakes. She sometimes does and says the wrong things, but she learns from them and has a kind heart that compels her to change. Fans of the novel will likely enjoy this film adaptation, yet one does not have to be a fan nor a young adult to find the beauty in it and its message.
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