Samantha Kingston (Zoey Deutch) is a Senior in High School who seems to be living the good life. She's super popular, she's got a boyfriend she's planning to lose her virginity to and she's got a trio of friends that includes Lindsay Edgecombe (Halston Sage), that she loves dearly. Of course, these girls aren't exactly the nicest people on the block since they mock the more unpopular kids at the school (they're the Plastics of their High School, if you will) but they remain oblivious to the consequences of their bullying and just go about their business at school and at parties...until one night, on February 12th, a car crash abruptly sends them hurtling to their deaths.
Samantha awakens, expecting to find herself in a hospital bed at best, only to see that she's back in her bed in her room at the start of the day. She can't possibly be reliving the same day over and over again could she? That sounds impossible but it's exactly what's going on for Samantha who is now stuck reliving February 12th over and over again all while trying to figure out how she can break this cycle and resume life a-new. Funny thing about reliving the same thing repeatedly though; you begin to get a new perspective on stuff you might have just taken for granted or not even given a second thought to before. Suddenly, Samantha is starting to see her life in a whole new light and might just take advantage of her new predicament to alter her existence for the betterment of those around her.
Yes, the character arc and progression of Samantha is predictable but it's hard to mind when the movie her journey towards betterment resides in is so surprisingly enjoyable. Going into Before I Fall without knowing a darn thing about its plot, I was impressed with how Maria Meggneti's screenplay decides to employ the o'l repeating one-day infinitely trick as a way to represent how bullying can become an endlessly reoccurring cycle. Samantha may be trapped in a time loop from which she can't escape but she herself realizes this isn't so different from the more grounded scenario of being taunted day in and day out that the students she and her friends pick on (like reclusive art student Juliet) have been forced into.
What seems like a gimmicky plot device aping recent well-known movies turns out to be a clever way to explore High School bullying in a manner that lends Before I Fall real substance. Granted, it probably would be more substantive if Meggneti's script spent more time developing the bullied students like Juliet as people since these individuals that are so crucial to a plot all about recognizing them as humans still can't quite escape rendering them as one-note stereotypes. A similar lack of depth does haunt supporting characters like Samantha's mom or her best pal Lindsay, but luckily, our protagonist Samantha is indeed a fully-fleshed out character, one whose brought to life by a fantastic performance by Zoey Deutch.
Deutch works wonders with portraying Samantha reacting both positively and negatively to this newfound inescapable scenario she's found herself in and her portrayal of Samantha's more compassionate side in the third act is particularly effective. An emphasis on the value of basic empathy also turns out to be one of the best traits of Before I Fall and similarly noteworthy is some audacious directing by Ry Russo-Young that shows some boldness in trying to direct this tale in a more distinctive fashion compared to similar teen-oriented dramas. Even when the visual stylings of Before I Fall (like some nighttime scenes that are too dark for their own good) fall flat, I can at least see why they would go for a specific visual choice or camera trick. There was clearly some real thought put into Before I Fall and it results in something much more introspective and engaging than expected.
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