Fallen Before Falling is a psychological thriller revolving around an actress struggling with mental illness. It's an interesting flick and a great feature debut for director James Dubbeldam. Moving out of the city into a run down farmhouse Anastasia plans to rest her mind and escape her demons. We're led to believe she's a successful but stubborn woman who thinks she can handle the world on her own, and that includes her small piece of it. Fallen Before Falling showcases her journey to success or failure. Which one? You'll have to watch. The problem with these types of films is the way in which to approach the mental illness aspect. This is hard to do by the streamlined great directors. The ones with the huge budgets. So you can imagine how hard it is for the little weeny independent film maker. And it's even harder for the actor. So how'd they do? Not to bad. Cecile Butt gives a credible performance as Anastasia. Take a look at the top left screen shot, her expressions are priceless. Although not perfect she does one hell of a job playing someone in Anastasia's condition. She is supported by a talented cast and very rarely do the lines come off as 'Right off the page' acting. Again, this is a double hard feat to pull off because of the content they are working with.( The Mental Illness Aspect ) Both of us who reviewed the film give the cast a thumbs up for their great work. Visually the film looks pretty good. I/We could really see a style in film making that James should keep at, hone and master. You never know, Fallen Before Falling could become a cult / collectors piece in the future if he continues on the path he's on. We both argued what to rate this film. In the end we rounded our two scores off and put our rating right in the middle. We say Fallen Before Falling is a great film and give it a solid 3.5 / 5.