Before I Fall

April 14, 2018 - It's Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls meets The Butterfly Effect in this PG-13 film from 2017. Zoey Deutch and Halston Sage star. Jennifer Beals has limited screen time as Zoey's mom. The movie is based on a book from Young Adult novelist Lauren Oliver.

Deutch plays Samantha "Sam" Kingston, one of four friends who hang together at the high school in their well-to-do community. This particular day is February 12, and because it's a Friday, it's Cupid Day, where girls receive roses from their admirers. Sam has been dating Rob, and he grudgingly gives her a rose. She also gets an unexpected rose from Kent, a classmate who's been sweet on Sam since they were kids. Kent has a house party planned for that night and he really hopes Sam will show up.

Sam and her friends do show up. But, the night does not go well. Sam ignores Kent, gets pissed off when her boyfriend is drunk and flirting with other girls, and then only watches as one of the school's unpopular girls shows up, creates a scene, and then runs off into the woods. Sam and friends call it a night, but on the way home, there's a crash and Sam dies.

Or does she? After the crash, Sam wakes up in her own bed only to realize that it's February 12 all over again. As the day continues to repeat, Sam tries to do things differently. Even a scenario where Sam survives is not enough to break the cycle. Finally, Sam learns the cause of the crash that kills her and realizes what must be done.

Overall review: ** I thought about turning this one off (I watched it on a pay channel). As you may infer from the first sentence of this review, there's not a lot here that's new. But, I stuck with it until the end because I wanted to know what it would take to break the cycle. The ultimate message here is be nice because you never know when one day might be your last.