Directed by: Ry Russo Young
Starring: Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, Elena Kampouris, Logan Miller, Jennifer Beals
Before I Fall is dead serious, young adult version of Groundhog Day. This sounds like an odd fit, but most of the movie works. Most of it. The finale soured me. The heroine may have righted things for herself in some metaphysical way, but I'm not so sure she didn't damage the girl she was trying to help worse. The actions of the heroine are so extreme that we reject it. And the poor girl she was supposed to save may now have to live with guilt on top of her other problems. You will see what I mean.
Here is what leads up to the ending: A popular high school girl named Samantha (Deutch) wakes up on February 12 to a lovey-dovey text from her boyfriend and proceeds to go about her day in customary fashion. She barely acknowledges her parents and younger sister on the way out the door and her best friend Lindsay (Halston) drives her and two other popular girls to school. This is to be a big day in Samantha's life. She intends to lose her virginity to her boyfriend, who can't even be bothered to sit with her at lunch, while fending off the obvious affections of Kent (Miller) who loved her since grade school.
The popular girls make life miserable for a plain Jane outsider named Juliet (Kampouris) with public shaming and name calling. Well, Lindsay, the de facto leader of the clique, does most of the shaming for reasons made clear later. The rest follow along, even though Samantha's heart may not exactly be into hurting Juliet. At a party later that night, Juliet unexpectedly shows up and is promptly humiliated by the girls. During the ride home, the girls are in a horrific roll-over accident. Samantha then wakes up in her bed on February 12 again, awoken by the same text from her boyfriend and the same song. She is convinced she had a bad dream, until she soon understands she is reliving February 12 all over again, while everyone else isn't.
No one in Before I Fall has apparently seen or heard of Groundhog Day. I was able to even put aside the plot similarities, including the fact that both Groundhog Day and Before I Fall has their respective protagonists reliving a February day. Why February? Is there a cosmic reason for this? Before I Fall is based on a novel, so maybe the novel's writer has some insight which I'm not aware of, nor do I necessarily care to find out. In order to allow the film to move forward, the viewer has to put Groundhog Day out of his mind. I did and I was able to reasonably enjoy the movie. Of course Before I Fall is preposterous by nature, but the suspension of disbelief is no more than watching other films in which the time/space continuum is broken.
Deutch is a fresh-faced actress who provides us with a sympathetic Samantha. We begin to understand that reliving the same day for Samantha represents a cosmic penance for failing to be her better self. She fell into the role of follower to Lindsay and would rather be part of a popular clique for the wrong reasons than alone for the right ones. The universe is punishing her for this, while in Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's Phil underwent the same fate because he was such a prick to everybody. I'm reminded of Woody Allen's lament about the possibility of reliving your life as penance in the afterlife: "Great, that means I'm going to have to sit through the Ice Capades again."
As the day repeats itself, Samantha's feelings towards her dilemma are similar to five stages of grief. Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Depression, and then Acceptance. She learns the truth about Lindsay, Juliet, Kent, etc. and soon understands her fate is linked to Juliet, the bullied girl. Up until then, I was intrigued by Before I Fall, but then it steps wrong. The resolution does Juliet no favors, while it gets Samantha off the hook and I suppose we are supposed to be happy for her. Although I don't see how we can be. Again, you'll see what I mean. I hate to sound so vague. Besides not hearing of Groundhog Day, Samantha has obviously never heard of Yogi Berra either. It would be priceless for her to say, "I think I'm experiencing deja vu all over again,"
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