Before I Fall Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Before I Fall Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 23, 2017

There must be something about the month of February that gets the space-time continuum out of whack. Maybe it's the abbreviated 28-day calendar (29 days every now and then for leap year). Everyone knows the story of Groundhog Day, which takes place on February 2. That annual tradition, which claims to predict either a longer winter or a warming trend based on whether a groundhog named Phil sees his shadow, was, of course, immortalized in the smash hit Comedy film Groundhog Day about a man who is cursed (and eventually blessed) to live the dame day over and over again. Before I Fall, based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Oliver, takes place on "Cupid Day," which is February 12 (as opposed to Valentine's Day, February 14...gold stars to anyone who has heard of "Cupid Day" before). It, too, tells the story of a person stuck in a time loop, this one much less funny and forgiving and more serious in nature. It follows a teenage girl who is forced to reflect on her life, the decisions she's made, and the choices she will make to prevent a greater tragedy around her.

Friends 4 ever.

Samantha Kingston (Zoey Deutch) is a typical teenager. She awakens and immediately checks her cell phone; she's elated to have a "Cupid's Day" message from her boyfriend Rob (Kian Lawley). She catches a ride to school with her friends Lindsey (Halston Sage), Ally (Cynthy Wu) and Elody (Medalion Rahimi). The four are inseparable, and one of their favorite pastimes is picking on the awkward loner girl Juliet (Elena Kampouris). That night, the quartet attends a party hosted by one of Samantha's childhood friends, Kent (Logan Miller), who has a crush on her. The party doesn't go as planned. They leave in disgust and soon thereafter are in a terrible car accident. Samantha wakes up the next morning as if nothing had happened, but she soon realizes she's repeating the same day. Her efforts to figure out why she's caught in a time loop lead her to reevaluate her life and help those in need around her.

Before I Fall explores the notion of time, not so much the scientific aspect of it but rather how individuals make use of it. The movie is more metaphor than anything else, using the time loop as a device to demonstrate the importance of living life right, of slowing down, of taking everything into account and living right based on careful consideration of how one uses time, not as they allow it to idle by with wasteful or, perhaps even worse, hurtful pursuits. The film isn't particularly creative, then, in terms of what it explores or even how it explores it, but it does offer a decent combination of setting and perspective, of a contemporary character who is charged with reassessing her life, forcibly, as it were, by some power beyond her control, but nevertheless using the opportunity not to sulk in frustration but to set things straight for her own benefit and, certainly, in the name of aiding others. It's nicely noble, it's told well enough, and it's at least somewhat unique in that it's a much darker picture -- literally, even, considering the movie's bleak physical structure -- than the lighter, but no less lightweight, Groundhog Day.

One of the movie's major drawbacks is that it's completely reliant on support genre tropes to progress through the story. Beyond the main character, who is herself a fairly shallow person to begin the film, there's her clique that's full of familiar-type shallow teens. There's the social outcast who is the subject of derision by Samantha and her friends. Samantha's boyfriend is the one-track mind, sexually aggressive sort who pursues her only to fill his physical needs. There's the much more quiet, reserved, contemplative childhood male friend who pines for and pursues Samantha out of affection for her, not simply for her body. All of these characters are necessary in shaping the story, but every single one of them is a cutout that's been seen before. The story's impact cannot help but be reduced by the dearth of creativity around these characters, and the story does suffer for such a generic support cast around its lead. Performances are fine, though, with Zoey Deutch doing her best to stretch the dramatic elements and sell the idea that she's undergone a transformative experience through the situation, which transitions from awkward situation to difficult ordeal to redemptive experience. The support cast does what it can with the stable of generic characters. Director Ry Russo-Young makes good use of tone and texture to help tell and shape the story without overwhelming it with outside influence.

Before I Fall Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Before I Fall's 1080p transfer suits the movie's style and mood well enough. The digitally sourced motion picture takes on a deliberately soft, occasionally diffuse appearance. Details are fine, never extraordinarily sharp or complex but well defined to the point that the 1080p horsepower is noticeable and complimentary to what the movie has to offer. Faces are particularly delicate. The movie takes on a fairly dark filtering, playing with a bleak, blue-gray color scheme that only infrequently gains warmth, typically at the party. The doldrums not only hold back any sparkling detail, but they prevent the image from exploding in cheerfully bright colors. The dreary palette is presented well enough within the movie's context. Black levels are very deep and tend to push towards crush. Flesh tones are contextually fine. Noise is light and no other anomalies are immediately evident. The transfer looks fine considering the movie's intended visual stylings.

Before I Fall Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Before I Fall features a very basic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Score is gentle and delicate, fluttering about the front with satisfactory width but no real push into the rears. Clarity is healthy, too, and the track's credentials remain even as some of the music shifts to bass-heavy popular beats. The low end is impressive, producing a solid, and well defined, thump that's the highlight in a track that is otherwise devoid of much aggression, even the car crash that features prominently in several scenes. A few good effects filter through, including booming thunder, packed din at the party, or a truck that rumbles by right before the car crash. The track opens up a bit in terms of depth at the very end. Dialogue is clear, naturally settled in the front-center, and there are no prioritization problems to be found.

Before I Fall Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Before I Fall contains no extras beyond a collection of trailers for other Universal films. A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy are included with purchase.

Before I Fall Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Before I Fall is a very average film, balancing out poorly developed support characters and a fairly trite story of personal growth, all in the midst of a classic "Groundhog Day" scenario with a strong lead performance, quality (simple) direction, and enough dramatic weight and forward momentum to keep the viewer interested. Its pluses eek past its minuses, but overall it's a fairly routine movie that still offers more heft than much of today's empty, visceral cinema. Universal's Blu-ray is unfortunately featureless, but video and audio are fine. Worth a look.