One girl must live her nightmare of a day over and over again, in Before I Fall. What if you had only one day to change absolutely everything? Samantha Kingston (Zoey Deutsch) has it all: the perfect friends, the perfect guy, and a seemingly perfect future. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, Sam wakes up with no future at all. Trapped reliving the same day over and over she begins to question just how perfect her life really was. And as she begins to untangle the mystery of a life suddenly derailed, she must also unwind the secrets of the people closest to her, and discover the power of a single day to make a difference, not just in her own life, but in the lives of those around her, before she runs out of time for good. Before I Fall is directed by Ry Russo-Young, and is rated R for mature thematic content, sexuality, violent imagery and adult language.
‘Before I Fall’ opens as another typical teenage time-stamped film, but slowly unweaves itself full of insightful character exposition and social commentary for the teenage years, setting this one as a rare delight upon the young adult genre. The very idea of repeating the same day over-and-over again is certainly nothing new. Films like ‘Groundhog Day’ or ‘Premonition’ most recently come to mind as movies with a similar plot, but ‘Before I Fall’ takes that familiarity and makes it something fresh and organic when combined with the pressures and regrets of high school. This kind of plot when used as a dramatic force, brings out not only the comical side of repetition in fashion trends and dated musical interests, but also in re-living the same kinds of decisions that don’t make you proud. It is thrown in the face of our protagonist with each day that is stuck in the same place, and with that, she is able to grow from a unlikeable follower when we are first introduced to her, into a full blown woman who moves to the beat of her own drum by the end of the movie.
My first commendable appreciation was in that of director Ry Russo-Young for giving a film that revolves around and geared toward teenagers, an artistically merited design within the backdrops and style decisions in the film. The setting of Seattle is certainly nothing new with this crowd, but it works better here more than ever for the kind of foggy and dreary emotional roller-coaster that Sam is trying to get to the bottom of. There are many gorgeously ominous shots involving fog curling around the wooded landscapes that surround the endless forests, as well as a lot of cold and damp interior shots of the Kingston’s residence, relaying a strong presence of distance between the once loving family. These directions do so much more in removing some of the burdens of carrying the movie on the script, and grant us a stage of wondrous beauty for us to appreciate during some of the lackluster moments of the film. More on that later. For the first act of the movie, there’s also a lot of reliance upon the soundtrack. There are no doubts that this is one of those movies geared at spiking up ITunes numbers, but I didn’t have as big of a problem with it, simply because it isn’t geared towards my age bracket. The repetition of hearing these songs might annoy some audience members, but do quite the job of understanding the shock and anger associated with living through the same events without end.
The exposition in character reveals and thickening plots is also to be appreciated here. Beyond the slow points of the first act, where the setup is to repeat the same events a few times, our patience is finally rewarded with each passing day, when we learn a little more about character details and plots that paint a brighter picture for certain actions and responses between them. It is in that beginning of the second act when you feel how truly heavy that this script really is, and I found myself on the edge of my seat for the histories and pasts of these revolving characters coming in and out of frame. The film is also smart enough to give audiences a provocative chance that is too sweet to take, on having the opportunity to go back and change some of the things that we regret about our youthful years. With each day, Sam tries to change something different, giving us a butterfly effect of sorts not only for herself, but also for her ensemble group of people who she interacts with every day. As I mentioned before, this is certainly nothing original, but the fresh young adult perspective offers plenty of insights into peer pressure and breaking trends that are too self-reflective not to enjoy.
Unfortunately, the main plot of the movie wasn’t as rewarding to me because of a reveal that I figured out with about an hour left in the movie. The film’s big mystery on how Sam is stuck in this disposition, as well as what happened that night on that lonely road, is maneuvered to be what the audience should care about, but after seeing the same scene play out twice, I figured out the twist with ease. I won’t spoil anything, but through the many amounts of car crash sequences that I have watched in my career, I know a thing or two about sights and sounds, and overall what to expect from this kind of scene. The big trigger was a certain sound missing from the equation that more than revealed to me just what happened. After this point, the movie slowly starts to leak energy from the enjoyable enough setup that it garnished before this. Because of my advantage, it felt like waiting for the inevitable on something that wasn’t shocking or even informative for the audience to understand the logic behind Sam’s pause button. It feels a lot like asking three questions and only getting an answer for one, the one that seemed the most obvious at the time.
What does lift this well beyond the status of a passable rental however, is the stirring performance of Deutch at the helm of her first dramatic starring role. Sadly, Zoey has only been cast in comedies up to this point, so her turn as Samantha is something of a coming out party for the woman being asked to juggle so many emotions in her repertoire. In this role, I consider that she is playing two totally separate characters from start to finish, and each she achieves with an honest register of teenage emotions that feel brutally honest. Considering the actress is only 22 years old, she is still fortunate enough to channel these feelings and actions like they were yesterday, and we’re fortunate enough because ‘Before I Fall’ gives us a glimpse into her inevitable stardom. As for the supporting cast, I also enjoyed Halston Sage as Samantha’s troubled, albeit flamboyant best friend. Sage first appeared in 2014’s ‘Paper Towns’, but here she is given slightly more camera time to perfect the bitchy best friend that we fear talks about us behind our backs. Sage does her character well, even if she is kind of one-note on material. Beyond this, I couldn’t get comfortable with anyone because the characters were frequently interchangeable. I did however notice some terribly bad ADR within that of the two other best friends involved in this group. I don’t know if it’s because they are appearing in their first major motion picture or what, but it’s clear that post production fixed some otherwise faulty line reads between them.
‘Before I Fall’ leaves a lasting impression and sets itself apart from a genre of disposable trash by laying heavily on the darker layers creatively and visually in its atmospheric drama. At the helm is an eye-opening performance by Deutch, as well as a breakthrough direction by Russo-Young that hinders on the importance of empathy, judgement and family, and less about the temporary imbalance of high school endeavors. Profound and poignant without ever demeaning itself for shallow waters. This is one fall I gladly recommend.
6/10