Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

B N 'Before The Fall' manages to pack a handfl of genuinely beautiful scenes into its 1 hr 32 min running time. It also manages to fill the rest of the scenes with a lot of uninspired writing, clumsy directing, and some regretably bad acting.Before I continue, I would like to single out three of the lead actors as having been quite good.Chase Connor as the deeply troubled and brooding Darcy is very good. There is something about this character (in keeping with the original novel) that demands he be as handsome as he is conflicted, and Mr Conner does not disappoint. He is (as another reviewer has rightly noted) "breathtaking" to look at. While he does get in a fair bit of brooding, it is not the only note that he strikes. We see him smile (a couple times) with his new-found friend Bingley (played equally well by the devastatingly handsome Jason Mac), we see him pensive and in pain, seemingly on the verge of tears. We see him struggle and want to open up, grasping at hope. He makes us see it, this hope, like a distant glimmer that he spies but cannot reach. He is a man with many demons, and Conner captures it well.Ethan Sharrett contributes a well-balanced performance on the whole. There are some beautiful moments when he ceases to "act" and just inhabits the character of Bennett so completely that we are transported, we are there with him, in his pain and his embarassment and his regret. But at other times, perhaps due to the sodden script or the uneven directing, his acting seems to flounder, he loses both likeability and believability.This brings us to the script: it is in bad need of a re-write. I understand that Mr Geisling (who wrote the script and directed the film) was trying to break new ground with this effort, but I think it is clear that the script suffers from his narrow perspective.We are not supposed to despise any of the character's from Jane Austen's novel, so I am confused about why Mr Geisling would choose to make Bennett so thoroughly unlikeable through much of the film. Yes, he is supposed to be classist and snobby (Geisling switches the character's roles, making Darcy from the working class and Bennett from the upper class) and flawed and short-sighted. But we are always supposed to retain the idea that his superior attitude is not his true self, that he is mostly a victim of his upbringing. Once he is faced with seeing his ugly self in the proverbial mirror, he will not like what he sees and he'll quietly set about changing. Mr Bennett's evolution comes about too quickly for me right at the end of the film.Bennett's gay friends are downright insufferable with their catty obsession with men that they want to pursue.Cathy (Darcy's girlfriend) is a ... well, she's so many bad words that I cannot write them here. Suffice it to say that the first rhymes with "hunt" and the second with "ditch". How or why Darcy is with her is truly a mystery. Her bigotry and vitriol seem overdone. There is no nuance in her character, either in the script or in the actor's portrayal.Yes, such terrible people exist in the world, but such an unrelenting lack of sympathetic qualities sours a film.I recently watched the Irish film 'The Stag' (also titled 'The Bachelor Weekend') which featured the character known as The Machine. He is the slightly psychopathic and very inappropriate soon-to-be brother-in-law of the groom, and he has managed to wedge himself into a bachelor weekend (an ersatz stag experience) much to the chagrin of the groom, the best man, and their three mates. But as initially brash, uncouth, and yes, even slightly psycho as he is, he actually turns out to be a good listener and a staunch ally and teaches these men a few lessons about what it means to be a loyal friend.

rljohnson1975 First off, let me say, too many people over analyze movies. Movies are supposed to make us feel something, regardless of the emotion. I found this film very touching and beautiful. The characters were believable and genuine. The acting by some in this film was less than stellar, but for a low budget film what do you expect? I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I have known more than a few people like the character of Lee. Some say stereotypical, I say realistic. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. I think most folks can get past a little bit of poor acting to appreciate a deeper meaning.

pakenmann It's easy to spill into colourful and cheap when portraying "gays" on screen. This film manages to achieve erotic tension and I think this is due to its wonderfully dignified treatment of both character and relationship. That, of course, apart from the great acting Sharrett is putting in.

johnfox-56042 I am 94 years old, born in 1923. In 1938, at the age of 15, I entered a major Ivy League university, graduating in 1941, something of a record at that time. On December 11, 1941, at 18 years of age, I joined the U.S. Navy because I was angry about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Because of my talent, education, personal ambition, and considerable political pull, I received a commission in the U.S. Navy, being assigned to Naval Intelligence. World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and thereafter saw me retire at the rank of Naval Captain. Through it all, twice I was shot up pretty good, and twice I was told by doctors -- in effect -- that I was a hard man to kill, followed of course by what we would now call PTSD and very bad memories, but not to forget those endlessly repeated very bad dreams experienced to this day.The good news is that you seldom find a senior career intelligence officer and combat ship captain in retirement who is poor. The skills, experience, knowledge and insights acquired, and priceless personal contacts thereby garnered frequently transfer favorably to the world of business.Which brings me to "Before the Fall" (2016), written and directed by Byrum Geisler.Ah yes, my marriage. Strip away the time frame, the civilian dress, the historical peculiarities, and especially the lack of reference to war, to killing, and to the absence of marshal mayhem generally and the eventually righted miscarriage of UCMJ justice that I personally engineered out of a sense of simple justice and out of my passionate, my absolute consuming interest in the object of my desire, you will find the accurate beginning of the latticework of my life-long love affair, who unhappily died before I did.The clown responsible for the UCMJ miscarriage of justice was eventually keelhauled by the Navy in a fashion similar to the tender mercies of the Virginia state bar as described in "Before the Fall". To my complete satisfaction.I salute Mr. Geisler and his crew and staff for their subtle and sophisticated rendering of a slice of life drawn, in my opinion, and especially in my experience from real life, gay or straight.Or gay AND straight, because from this movie, both apply.Parenthetically, the cinematography is excellent.I give this fine movie an IMDb rating of 7.0.