Before the Fall

It helps to have read Pride and Prejudice, but that isn't necessary. The film stands on its own.

Where it stands fairly well is in its direction and editing. The film is crisp and goes where it needs to without a lot of fuss. Cinematography shows off the scenery quite well.

Where it fails is twofold: one, the script -- and, thus, characterizations -- and, two, the chemistry between the leads. The film indulges in embarrassing cliches, such as the two gay best friends who are ostensibly meant to be taken ironically, I suppose; but they come off as a couple of losers. Cringeworthy, even. The women don't fare very well, especially Darcy's girlfriend. Their acting is fine; it's just that the women -- and some of the men -- appear to be in a different movie. The girlfriend is a homophobic shrew....which gives rise to a related problem, that of open homophobia clearly expressed. While it's certainly understandable that these attitudes exist, why this film, ostensibly about a slow-brewing romance, indulges homophobia to the extent it does is problematic. We've all heard these things before; and rather than make us dislike more the characters who are homophobic, you are aghast that the script is so in-your-face about this. Less of this would have been better.

The two leads are fine; yet in so far as they are physically quite different so too is there zero chemistry. Bennett is all sincerity and feelings while Darcy is all brooding and impenetrable. They are oil and water and it just does not work. The ending -- and this is a sort of spoiler but not really, as the ending is clearly what you think it will be, especially if you know the novel -- where they kiss has to be the most unromantic moment I've ever witnessed in a film.

Huge plot hole: a neighbour believes she sees Darcy hit his girlfriend -- he doesn't -- and hears him threaten to harm her. No one challenges this, not even the police officer, by saying "Where were you when you heard the threat?" She was in her own house next door and all the windows were closed; even if she had been outside she couldn't have heard a thing. This is just sloppy.

One final point: the music / soundtrack. It's like you're in a shopping mall. I get that scoring a film costs money. But the producer could have avoided this simply by using less music but of better quality.

This film is based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and it borrows quite a bit from its source, but it is very much its own story. The differences are enough to allow it to be judged on its own. The gorgeous Virginia and Great Smoky mountain scenery only enhance the beauty of the film. The characters are believable in their flawed reality. There is comic relief at times, even campy silliness with a couple characters, but they really don't detract from the poignant plot progression. These people feel very real, perhaps even like people we know. Yes, all of them; the main characters, the friends, the girlfriends. Most of us know people like this, might want to step into the story and have a stern talk with them (or more). The slow pace may put off some viewers who would be impatient for the story to move along, for the characters to just "get over themselves." Let them be. They will work it all out the best way they can.

First time I found out that people had already made a gay themed Pride and Prejudice I was instantly hooked. The whole P&P gay thing was my idea for a novel that I'm working on (in my head), although hadn't had the time to start on it.

I've always been a Pride and Prejudice fan. It's the first book in the Austenverse that I've read as a kid. I've fallen in love with the characters especially with the main lead Lizzie Bennet. Mr. Darcy, of course, will always be my fictional boyfriend. I have always identified myself with Elizabeth ever since I've read the novel and watched the 1995 and 2005 version, including the rom-com version, Bridget Jones' Diary.

Okay... so about this movie; I am both impressed and disappointed. Let me start off first by saying the "good" stuff about the film. The cinematography is visually stunning. The nature scenes are breathtaking and gorgeous to look at, it felt like you could almost feel and smell the breezy wind right through you, giving that vibe to the audience is an achievement. The storyline's good although it lacked the certain qualities of Austen's novel such as the social satire and wit that made the novel a universal hit. But I'm aware the director (Geisner) is not going for that direction, instead, he's focusing more on the romantic tension between Darcy and Lizzie and what could happen if they were transformed in the 21st Century as a same-sex couple. Darcy is as brooding as ever, in here he is depicted as a closeted gay man struggling to come in terms with his own identity, which is EXACTLY what he would look like if he were reinterpreted as a queer man.

As for my bad impressions, sad to say there are more bad moments than good but at least tolerable to bear with. My biggest complaint is the camerawork, it's often shaky here and there. Some angles were great, some angles were okay, some angles were just plain hard to look at. It looks as if it was done by a teenager with minimal knowledge about the basics of filmmaking. The dialogue was okay, but I expected more from it, it is after all an Austen adaptation so I expected it to have more depth and quality in the usage of their words. The two gay men, which are obviously the film's version of Lydia and Kitty, made me flinch in disgust; they're stereotypical and annoying (I get that their original counterparts really are annoying but I did not expect this kind of exasperation), I don't know if the writer of the screenplay intended them to be the comedic relief but it seemed they're just there to mess up the lives of everyone around them, they're like Jar Jar Binks twins in human flesh. Lastly, my second biggest complaint is the main lead, Ben Bennet. I don't see any hint of Lizzie in his character other than the "pride" and "prejudice" part which is obviously the most vital part of the story. He lacks charm, humour, liveliness, and (most importantly) sarcasm. My insult to his character: he resembles more of a Bella Swan than a vivacious woman with a pair of fine eyes.

If this wasn't a Pride and Prejudice film, I would've said more nasty stuff about it, my Austen spirit led to forgive it as a whole. I'm used to watching great films and I've seen far better LGBT themed movies than this, but set aside all the flaws and imperfections, I think it's a good film (if not a great one), it is imperative proof that beloved classics like Pride and Prejudice could be "queerified" if done with justice and regard to the original source.

In case you were wondering how the title related to Pride and Prejudice, "Before the fall" is from Proverbs in the Bible. That should have been obvious to me, but I had to look it up. I knew the proverb, and I knew Pride and Prejudice, but I didn't make the connection.

That's because this reinterpretation has turned Jane Austen's characters upside down. D'Arcy and Bingley are poor, not rich, and (characters equivalent to) the Bennett sisters are concerned about marrying beneath their status rather than above.

That's clever, and one of the few reinterpretations of Pride & Prejudice that's not a poor imitation, it's completely different. Pride & Prejudice is a social satire, and a comedy of manners. This film, on the other hand, isn't funny. There is a little comic relief, but it's feeble and the film would have been better without it.

By no means is the dialog scintillating, and some plot devices are pretty weak (though probably no less contrived than Austen's). I personally was annoyed by the maudlin piano soundtrack in scenes where it was not only unnecessary, it was distracting.

There are additional flaws that one could complain about, but overall I found myself able to overlook them. There is a lot to admire here, and it easily drew me in. I'd say give it a chance, especially if you are a fan of Jane Austen.

Jane Austen for the ages: BEFORE THE FALL

Filmmaker Byrum Geisler, interviewed after the film's showing at the 2016 Virginia Film Festival, noted that he was inspired to portray all of Pride and Prejudice "backwards," and indeed he does. The most remarkable difference between the two works would be the change in focus from feminism to sexuality. While staying true to Austen's general storyline, the alterations in characterization and relationships make Geisler's film fresh and innovative.

In this most creative millennial version, Darcy is a poor "real" man who seems confused vis-à-vis his sexuality, and unable to admit his gayness —although pairing him up with a woman whose character simultaneously embodies both Lady Catherine and Caroline Bingley, two of Jane Austen's most hated characters, is enough to send any man looking for alternative love interests. Bingley too is a man who lives close to the earth, and is not particularly well off: a startling depiction of the man who, in Austen's Pride & Prejudice, was sought after by many for his incredible affluence. In another socioeconomic class reversal, the Bennetts in Before the Fall are relatively prosperous, and the older Bennett brother counsels his sister Jane against pairing her future with a man of such uncertain prospects as Bingley.

Although there are major changes to Jane Austen's original plot of Pride & Prejudice in Geisler's film adaptation, Before the Fall can still be considered an accurate rendition because it maintains distinguishing elements of Austen's writing. One of the most distinctive parts of an Austen novel is the surprising number of walks the characters take in the gardens. These walks mimic the slow pace of life in England's high society and demonstrate the changing social relationships as different couples pair up and walk off by themselves. Geisler reminds us of these walks when he updates a walk in the garden to a hike in rural Virginia. The cinematography in this film is beautiful, as the mountains of Virginia provide a stunning backdrop for the various hikes the characters go upon. Just as Mr. Bingley and Jane Bennett's relationship develops on walks throughout Pride & Prejudice, Chuck Bingley and Jane Gardiner have their most romantic scene on a hike.

Additionally, this film places a large emphasis on the influence of one's family on an individual, for better or for worse. Darcy is emotionally damaged and in denial of his sexuality as the result of the relationship with his estranged father, who was shown in a flashback walking into a truck stop restroom. Similarly, Jane is fiercely loyal to her brother, and willing to end her relationship with Bingley per his advice. The Wickham-like lawyer of questionable morality, whom Ben Bennett dates briefly, is incapable of abandoning his wife and children despite being gay. All of these ways the characters ardently take into account their family's values and wishes are reminiscent of Pride & Prejudice, which includes many scenes depicting the entire Bennett family in a single room and characters blindly following the advice of relatives instead of their own hearts.

In general, fans of the novel find themselves awash in a sea of contradictory characters and situations, a chimeric scope which seems to turn the novel, its characters, and its situations inside out. This works to create a new experience of the familiar work.

What perhaps does not work so well is its didacticism. Social commentary, unlike in Jane Austen's more subtle voice, is nothing if not overt, as Kittner and Lyle lecture Cathy about her own not-so-subtle biases against gay romances. The lectures seem out of place in a fictional work.

Before the Fall comments on how gayness is the same kind of social taboo as marrying someone from a different class in nineteenth century England, but it also comments on the perception of more feminine gay men, who face a stronger prejudice and cannot hide their sexuality.

Given the plethora of adaptations of Austen's most popular novel, Geisler and his crew are to be commended for the attempt to adapt in a new direction. And in large part, they succeed. Before the Fall is unique amongst the crowded world of Pride and Prejudice film and theatre versions in featuring gay protagonists and an impoverished though hot Darcy. My students who watched a pre-release version of the film found the heterosexual Bingley even hotter. Perhaps this film presages a new world of films featuring hot gay and straight characters together, in a world more seamless than the one we now inhabit.

by Andrea Press