SPOILER WARNING!!! What happens when you put four little bitches together in a High School setting? Yeah! Like a dozen people already wrote in their reviews about this film. "Mean Girls." Here we have Samantha (Zooey Deutch) and her mean gal buddy Lindsey (Halston Sage) and their two loyal minion follower gal pals. The high school girls are the terror of the high school hallways. As all other students seem to be in awe and envy of them. These four girls have the hippest clothes the best looking boyfriends. They rule! We watch their silly antics and pranks on each other and other students, especially against Lindsay's former best friend Juliet (Elena Kampouris) a raga muffin teen who resembles a New York city bag lady. Lindsay relishes with glee every opportunity to hurl nasty insults at her former best friend.
Somehow Samantha wakes up every morning to relive the exact same day. And we have to witness repeatedly all the silliness and nastiness the mean girls have to dish out. Yes yes many other reviewers have noticed and coined "Before I Fall" "Mean Girls" meets "Ground Hog Day" It is so blatantly obvious that the material from these two previous films were used, borrowed, stolen. Screenwriter for this film Maria Maggenti and novelist Lauren Oliver have shamefully taken large chunks from the two films mentioned and tried to make a dramatic film. It didn't work. The two original films worked for they were comedies with heart and soul. Here with "Before I Fall" there is just a constant flow of meanness, with only slight glimpses of any heart.
I really like Zooey Deutch as an actress, she is very talented. I wish she and her fellow actors had better script material to work with. Samantha as she relives her day over and over again attempts to break similar happenings by changing a few things in each day. In one repeat day scene Samantha wearing high fashion black and extra dark make-up. She looks more mature and in the SUV scene she releases her frustration upon her three mean girl pals by telling the truth, how she really feels about them. Samantha's wrath especially aimed against top honcho mean girl Lindsay, telling her she is a mean selfish egocentric bitch. BRAVO Samantha! This is the scene in this film that should have been a positive turning point.
Now one would think logically that Samantha had learned something be reliving the day over repeatedly. That she had grown and grownup. Yet NO! The writer of this screenplay Maria Maggenti places Samantha back in the SUV the following repeat day having Samantha acting silly with her mean gal pals. That is what they call out of character and totally illogical! Another example of out of character. Is the slumber party sleepover scene. In this scene Samantha knowing of bad things to happen at a big high school party, asks Lindsay and her two minion friends to join her in a slumber party, and for her friends not to attend the big party. So the three forgo the big party and join Samantha's slumber sleep over. NO WAY!! Lindsay as Samantha told her off is a selfish, egotistic brat!! No way Lindsay would not attend the big party. The writer here blew this scene, Lindsay is written completely out of character! Now all of this repetition has some kind of darker meaning. In another repeat day, Juliet confronts Lindsay at the big party, after a screaming altercation between the two. Juliet dashes from the party and is later killed. This scene is repeated several times with the same tragic result. Meanwhile Samantha finally begins to lose her mean girl ways, and starts treating her family with more caring love. A nerd boy that was kind to her, but she not to him, she begins to feel for him, choosing him over her one time all popular high school handsome hunk boyfriend. Yet the most important part of her repetitive puzzle , she doesn't get! Save Juliet from killing herself. She could have done this at the many relived high school scenes. In the cafeteria, by getting up from her elite mean girl table, instead of asking Lindsay "Why she is so mean to Juliet?" Hey Lindsay is the ultimate mean girl, That's why! Samantha could have gone over and sat with Juliet, tell her she'll give her some fashionable clothing so Juliet does not have look like an old bag lady and be friends with Juliet.
This would have taken courage on Samantha's part. Yet the writer picked the illogical course of action. As we see Samantha dashing after Juliet in a desperate last second effort trying to keep Juliet from running in front of highway traffic. This scene is repeated many times with the finale Samantha pushing Juliet out of the way of a truck, giving her life to save Juliet. A redundant illogical ending. The element of high school bullying is not handled well in this film. It leads to Juliet's near suicide and Samantha's death. Unfortunately, most teen girls watching this film will envy and want to copy the cool mean girl Lindsay. Unfortunately there are probably many Lindsays in High Schools all over America, who prey on girls like Juliet.
Part of the fear of everyday life is not knowing what is going to happen. Yet Samantha knows the future she can change and alter it any way she wants to. So why would she want end her life, when she can share her new kinder side with her family after discarding the mean girl within herself? One last observation, when Samantha is in bed she wears a really old torn tattered T-shirt that even Juliet would have been embarrassed to wear. Why would a teen who is so fashion conscious wear a torn trashy t shirt? Makes no sense at all!! Out of character again!
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