I caught this on Youtube and overall liked the themes of class conscientiousness, alcoholism and a self-loathing gay man. Acting was adequate but a there was a lot that felt contrived such as all the purely by chance "meetings" of the two main characters. Wish the ending had been more real. Lee had just shouted that he wasn't gay, walks away and then within minutes had a serious change of heart. Direction and timing was lacking here. And then the final kiss was too much, too unbelievable given the context. It should have been heartwarming and deeply emotional, but instead it was Hollywood's typical gesture of what true love is all about....smooching of the lips.

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.

Yikes, but this is a terribly slow burn! We start with a scene in which a young boy's father seeks some solace with a man in a gas station restroom. Advance many years and we find the boy, now a man - "Lee" (Chase Conner) drinking his way through a loveless (certainly sexless) relationship with his girlfriend. A bit of a tussle ensues, and with the aide of a rather creative account of their squabble from a neighbour, "Lee" ends up guilty of a felony. It's during his community service, he encounters "Ben Bennett" (Ethan Sharrett),and openly gay lawyer to whom "Lee" takes a bit of a dislike. The film now focusses - if that's the right word - on the complexities of not only their their relationship, but of those around them. Now this purports to be a "re-imagining" (never my favourite word) of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", but quite how is a mystery to me. The themes are thrown together, the characters shallow, the pace exceptionally ponderous and I found my self frequently yelling "just get on with it" at the telly. As a love story, it just doesn't ignite - on any level - and though it might have got away with it a few years ago as a bold example of gay film-making, this was made in 2016 and has no excuses - it is really quite sterile with direction that lingers long on the beautiful scenery of Virginia, takes us on loads of healthy hikes, and shows up a rather unthorough judicial process that committed poor old "Lee" in the first place, but offers us little to get our teeth into.