Pre in example sentence
That fiction drives the film and the very plot of having a leading actor (a dashing Jeff Daniels pre-Dumb & Dumber- we can understand how Michael Keaton got the boot from Woody, seriously) walk off the screen literally and romanticize an ordinary down-trodden, abused waitress in depression era New Jersey (played elegantly by Mia Farrow pre documentary expose- we can't understand how Soon Yi got the loot from Woody, seriously) is simply spell-binding as a plot line.