The new tween weeper "Five Feet Apart" is the latest YA adaptation to explore first love amidst a chronic illness in the hopes of wringing a good cry out of its intended audience. Sure, it's a cynical approach, and each movie of this type feels a bit more cynical than the last. It seems since the immense popularity of "The Fault in our Stars," which made just over $300 million worldwide, releases like "Five Feet Apart" are just chasing that success.
This one is set almost entirely in a hospital, which is where we meet Stella (Haley Lu Richardson, "Split"). She is living with cystic fibrosis, a god-awful disease that compromises the lungs. Her illness keeps her in the hospital for weeks and months at a time, to the extent that she feels like a tenant in an apartment complex. She knows all the staff, is best friends with another CF patient named Poe (Moises Arias, "Pitch Perfect 3") and roams the halls like it's the only world she has ever known. Stella lives her life on a rigorous schedule of pill-taking and treatments in an effort to combat what's going on inside of her lungs.
Her precisely crafted schedule is upended when Will (Cole Sprouse, Riverdale) enters the floor as part of a drug trial for CF patients. Will is the bad boy of the wing; he walks around aloof and unbothered by the world around him, rebels against protocols and treatments, and conducts himself with an air of mystery. Stella unexpectedly - to her, not to us - starts to fall for Will, which isn't really a part of her plan. And for Stella, everything needs to be planned.
Their relationship begins with Stella working on treatments with Will, trying to force him to adhere to the proper procedures he needs to follow in his quest to beat CF. Will doesn't take much seriously but he starts to like spending time with Stella, so suddenly working out at the hospital gym is worth it, despite all of his complaining. The catch - and there's always a catch - is Will and Stella have to remain six feet apart at all times so bacteria is not transferred from one to the other.
"Five Feet Apart" ramps up the cutesiness as Will and Stella start to fall in love, loading on the grand speeches and cloying soundtrack to really hammer home the message. A great deal of "Five Feet Apart" is elevated by Richardson, who has become one of the most interesting young actresses working today. She has shown her dramatic chops in the walking-and-talking "Columbus" and her comedic skills in "Support the Girls," and she brings a depth to Stella that the screenplay can't seem to. Richardson and Sprouse have enough of a palpable chemistry to navigate us through the routine story.
It's not a spoiler to say that the final scenes of "Five Feet Apart" want you grasping for tissues; but some of the decisions the characters make in the end are baffling, which runs the risk of taking you out of the movie when you're supposed to be at the height of your investment. It doesn't entirely pack the emotionally wallop it hopes or thinks it does and has built towards for almost two hours. We've seen worse movies of its kind but ultimately "Five Feet Apart" will make you wonder: haven't we seen enough?
| Movie title | Five Feet Apart |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2019 |
| MPAA Rating | PG-13 |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | New tween weeper explores first love amidst chronic illness; it doesn't pack the hoped-for emotional punch but it gets the job done. |
