Last week, I was lucky enough to get advance screening tickets to see Before I Fall before the release day on Friday, March 3rd. This is based off the book written by Lauren Oliver. Now as a book blogger, my first intention was to have finished the book before I saw the movie, but of course I was just shy of half the book...
So, with many questions from friends and co-workers on how the movie went, here's how I'll explain it. Since I didn't finish the book, I will be reviewing this as a movie, and not necessarily as an adaptation (considering I haven't finished the book still).
So as I sat with my close friends, with a bag of popcorn in hand, I was excited to see the film begin...
From the beginning, you really get a sense of who Samantha Kingston (Played by Zoey Deutch) is like in high school. Since it's from her perspective the entire time, you get a mix of what it's like to be part of the popular group, and what it's like being partially an outsider looking in. With the perfect boyfriend, perfect best friend, Lindsay (Played by Halston Sage) she's got everything you could ask for...right?
While watching it, I could foresee a lot of things happening between her relationships with everyone. I didn't exactly find her boyfriend in the movie (Played by Kian Lawley) to be all that. I was kind of expecting him to be a little more. He was too clean cut for me to believe that he was a "Bad Boy Jock" persona.
The entire time, the movie was very dark, and definitely suspenseful, which kind of made up for the typical clique "popular girls rule" style that had been coming out. I will admit that Deutch did a great job at playing Kingston in the film, as she really made you feel like you were kind of with her, and you totally understood everything that was happening.
Like this movie, it's compared to Groundhog Day (A movie, I probably don't remember watching) where she repeats her day over and over again. It takes a few trials for her to completely understand what needs to happen, and although I was hoping for a better outcome than how it ended, I thought it was a great way to showcase how you should always live your day as if it's the last, and to always tell people you love them.
Overall I would say to definitely give this movie a watch, as it does have meaningful messages throughout, I just personally found it to be very stereotypical for that teen, high school, popular girl vibe that we all know too well. If I were to rate this movie (Solely based on it being a movie) out of five stars, I would probably give it a solid four star rating. It did have moments that shocked me, but I just wished that there was more power to it.
