When I was younger I would always wonder what it would be like to be able to relive a day. For me to be able to do everything over again from that day. I would always want to know what would have happened if I did something different that day. When I watched the movie  “Before I Fall” it brought my wonders to life. This movie is an hour and forty minutes long and I never lost interest in anything that was happening. That is the reason why I decided to review “Before I Fall”. I want to highlight the characters, the storyline, the setting, and the lessons learned in the movie.

The characters in this movie are obviously trying to reflect the stereotypical high school groups. The stereotypic groups that they included are the following: the popular group of girls everyone wants to hang out with, the handsome guy everyone wants to date, the nerdy girl no one likes, and the nice guy that likes the popular girl. The main character, Samantha (Zoey Deutch), is included in the popular group. I like how Samantha changes over the course of the movie. She evolves as a person and changes her perspective on the world itself. For example, she said, ”But for some of us, there’s only today. And what you do today matters.” This movie demonstrated strong roles for each character that the movie could not go without. That aspect was nice to see in the movie because it added to the excitement while watching.

Some people might assume that because the storyline repeats a few basic details that it would become a boring movie. I am here to say that I think the opposite. The movie has a simple structure; however, it still managed to keep me fascinated. Each time Samantha lives the same day over and over again, the audience gets to see different details on that day that they didn’t show before. Samantha then begins to live each day differently while she’s trying to figure out how to stop the day from repeating. For instance, the first time she lived the day she went to a party after school. As the movie progressed Sam went to her friend's house after school instead, giving a different perspective on the day. Although the storyline tends to be simple, the director kept the movie interesting because of the variation. Another detail that helped keep the movie intriguing is the setting of each day.

As the movie goes on I noticed that the setting changed to bring different emotions to the film. When Sam woke up on the first day it was sunny outside and no clouds. At school the classes were bright, and at night the sky was dark with no clouds. As the days go on and she gets more confused, the setting gets darker. At night, a storm arises, while during the day it is gloomy and cloudy. Watching the movie, I was pleasantly surprised at what a great impact the setting had on me. I felt the emotions of Sam through the atmosphere around her. The movie was greatly improved by the diverse changes in setting throughout the story. The setting also helped me realize what the movie was trying to tell the audience and the lessons they wanted to share.

Movies are great entertainment, but when they help spread awareness to an issue and teach lessons it puts the movie over the top. In this movie, as I watched I realized that Samantha was a bully. Samantha and her friends made fun of Juliet (Elena Kampouris), the nerdy girl no one likes, almost every day. One day at the party, Samantha’s friend said, “Have you noticed nobody likes you” to Juliet. As the movie goes on, Samantha realizes that what she is doing is wrong and tries to fix it. Bullying is never okay, and there will be consequences. That is the most important lesson perceived in the movie. Another small lesson taught is to never judge a book by its cover. On one of the days, Samantha runs into Anna (Liv Hewson), a girl she never talks to, and ends up enjoying talking to her. Anna said, “Did you have to ask permission to talk to me?” when Samantha first walked over because her friends judged Anna and never talked to her. This teaches the audience that it is not polite to judge someone before speaking to them.

This movie is not only great because of its characters, storyline, and setting, but it also spreads awareness and teaches lessons. When all of these came together it made a very simple but great film. Sam had to figure out on her own how to end the cycle she was stuck in and learned a few life lessons along the way. The little girl inside of me imagining what it would be like to relive a day was so pleased with the turnout of this movie. “Before I Fall” met all of my expectations I had at the beginning. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone.