CBS Films
I have never met a person with cystic fibrosis and, honestly, I didn’t know much about the genetic disorder. I am someone who tends to stay away from all things medical related because I get panic attacks when I think too much about health issues such as cystic fibrosis. Movies like Five Feet Apart are hard for me to watch since my anxiety level is off the charts constantly throughout. Films such as 50/50 and The Fault in Our Stars absolutely wrecked me, and I had such a hard time watching them. They aren’t bad films at all, I just had a hard time watching films when health issues are discussed. I know, it is sad. I was a bit hesitant to see Five Feet Apart, but I still went and saw it and I don’t regret my decision.
Five Feet Apart is about two teenagers, Stella and Will played by Hayley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse, who fall in love in a hospital while being treated for cystic fibrosis. To avoid infection from other CF patients, people with CF must stay six feet away from them. This is hard for both Stella and Will who eventually start to fall in love but are forbidden to touch each other.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to live with cystic fibrosis, but the film does a good job of explaining the disease to the audience. I learned a lot from watching the film, which I wasn’t expecting. Stella has OCD tendencies and loves to be in control, and Will is the complete opposite. He doesn’t take his treatment seriously, which sets off Stella who helps guide him through his day. Stella helping Will with his day to day routines is what connects the two together.
Once we get past the awkwardness of the two meeting and hating each other for no reason, the film becomes a sweet love tale. Richardson and Sprouse have good chemistry despite not being able to touch each other. There are plenty of other barriers in the way of the two seeing each other like the ward nurse Barb, who has already seen a relationship like Stella’s and Will’s go bad, so she is trying to stop them from repeating it.
Hayley Lu Richardson is a great actress and has appeared in many great films throughout the years. I am determined that she will be a huge star one day, she just has to have her breakout role. Here in Five Feet Apart Richardson does a good job of making Stella sympathetic and flawed. I haven’t seen Cole Sprouse in anything in a long time. I don’t watch Riverdale so the last thing I saw him in was The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Sprouse is also good in his role even if he is moody and just awkwardly stares at Stella.
The end of course is melodramatic and is hard to follow over the sound of your own sobs. The film uses cystic fibrosis to bring the tears which unfortunately makes the film fall into the casual tearjerker category. Both stars are good at being emotional and succeed at having the audience feel connected to them.
Five Feet Apart at times felt like a clichéd romance film about two teenagers who fall in love and are sick. They are similar to characters in such films like The Fault in Our Stars, Me Before You, and Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. Five Feet Apart fits perfectly fine amongst those movies, but never feels original in its storyline. The narrative feels familiar and a bit forced at times. At times, this also feels like a Nicholas Sparks film as well.
I had a hard time watching Five Feet Apart and I stuck through it and I was happy I did. It unfortunately feels like a movie I have seen before, but it was held together by the acting and the film’s desire to make audience members understand cystic fibrosis and how it affects thousands of people.
Five Feet Apart has a run time of 1 hour 56 minutes and is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, language and suggestive material.
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