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Unsympathetic adaptation of young-adult fiction ‘Before I Fall’
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A still from 'Before I Fall.' (Awesomeness Films/File)
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ased on the novel of the same name, Before I Fall tells the story of Samantha Kingston, a popular high school senior who dies in a car crash, only to wake up and relive her last day over and over again.
Portrayed by Zoey Deutch (Vampire Academy, Beautiful Creatures), Samantha is difficult to sympathize with for a considerable portion of the movie. She’s part of the popular clique, lives in a big house, has a sweet little sister and nice parents, and goes along with bullying without complaint. While this should make her character development more interesting, it’s so extreme and abrupt when she finally does learn her lesson that it feels unearned.
Regardless of Sam’s faults, Deutch gives a great performance and allows the movie to stand solidly on her shoulders, but it’s the inconsistent writing that hinders her.
Most of the other characters are hinted at having interesting backstories, but rarely anything comes from it, instead forcing audiences to sit through the same day repeatedly without much variation, and allowing the characters to settle into stereotypes more often than not.
By far the film’s weakest link is its writing. With the use of already uncool slang and abbreviations like “bae”, “BRB”, and “FOMO”, Before I Fall shoots itself in the foot in an attempt to be cool.
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Still, scenes between Sam and her three friends -- Halston Sage as Lindsay, Cynthy Wu as Ally, and Medalion Rahimi as Elody -- light up the screen. Their chemistry is genuine and while their dialogue is stilted and unnatural at times, it is obvious that it is no fault of theirs. They behave as a real group of high school girls does: catty and rude, but undyingly loyal to one another.
Before I Fall’s weakest character is Kent, Sam’s elementary school friend, played by Logan Miller. While the film portrays him as a good guy, he comes off as obsessive. He states that they were close in third grade, which means that it had been nearly 10 years since they were friends. Yet, he keeps a picture of the two of them on his bedroom wall and sends her a rose on Valentine’s Day, despite the fact that Sam had a boyfriend.
“I figured if I had a party you’d come,” he says to Sam, in a perfectly apt representation of his Jay Gatsby-esque creepy desperation.
While the young-adult twist on the Groundhog Day is an interesting one, Before I Fall falls a short of satisfying. So if you’ve been on the lookout for a truly inspired movie about popular high schoolers, you’d be better off with a Mean Girls rewatch. (sul/kes)
