Movie Review: “Five Feet Apart” (LL)(NK)
By Devin Bulwicz ’20
I’ll admit that I have no shame and tear up and cry at movies. I don’t necessarily bawl my eyes out, but the second I can tell it’s going to be a sad moment, the flood gates in my eyes open a little bit. Add in a soundtrack that fits how the characters are feeling and that mist turns into a drizzle.
As luck would have it, I forgot to bring tissues when seeing Five Feet Apart.
I would say the “sick teenager” storyline came into the spotlight with John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars novel from 2012 that became a film in 2014, followed by other books turned into films such as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl in 2015 and Everything, Everything in 2017. Five Feet Apart from director Justin Baldoni (most known for playing Rafael on Jane the Virgin) can best be described as The Fault in Our Stars meets Everything, Everything.
“We’re breathing borrowed air.”
Five Feet Apart follows two 17-year-olds, Stella, played by Haley Lu Richardson, (The Edge of Seventeen, Split) and Will, played by Cole Sprouse. (Riverdale, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody). Stella and Will are two teenagers with cystic fibrosis, or CF for short. Naturally, when the two cross paths at the hospital for extended stays, it’s cliché after cliché. This is the film’s greatest shortcoming. While a little too harsh to say it ruined the film, there are times I found myself rolling my eyes, even to the point these clichés felt cringey. One particular scene made me think it was going in a Romeo and Juliet romance kind of way.
Stella is a rule follower. Will…not so much. When the two meet, she instantly dislikes him and his unorganized ways. Will also came off as rather rude and disrespectful during this initial exchange, which I didn’t like. It felt out of place.
Stella has control issues. She makes a to do list every day and has to follow it to a T. Will is unorganized and doesn’t follow his treatment protocol, which drives Stella crazy, leading her to setting him up with a plan where the two work on their treatments together. Stella has even programmed an app called Pillar that has a check list on what to do every day at certain times that she puts on his phone. Will agrees to get into a routine on the condition he can draw her. While reluctant, she obliges.
Important background information: patients with cystic fibrosis must stay six feet apart to reduce the risk of cross-infections. A cough travels six feet and a sneeze travels at 200 miles per hour.
When Stella’s nurse Barbara, nicknamed Bar, learns that the two are becoming romantically involved, she tells them she previously had two CF patients with a romance of their own who both ended up dying from cross contamination. Bar is determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again on her watch. Upon hearing this story, Will decides to stay away from Stella for good. Naturally, this doesn’t last for long.
As one would expect, the two grow closer. Eventually it comes to the point that they decide to let loose and live life a little, turning that six feet apart into five feet. After all, cystic fibrosis has taken so much from Stella, so the least she can do is steal back a foot. Stella’s seen carrying around a pool cue to determine five feet of distance. The two go on several dates in secret around the hospital, each holding an end of the pool cue. It quickly gets to the point they say their I love you’s to each other.
While the romance isn’t too over the top on the mushy affectionate side of things, it’s all the clichés that turned me off as a viewer. They even pulled the classic lines on how “I really want to be with you but I can’t” and “I don’t know what comes next but I don’t regret any of this. I just don’t know if I can walk away with you still looking at me.” Barf.
My final gripe with the film is the character Poe, who is played by Moises Arias (Ender’s Game, The Kings of Summer, Hannah Montana). While he does have some sort of purpose to the film, I strongly feel that he was an unnecessary character. The story would have advanced fine without his addition. He doesn’t contribute a whole lot other than being another CF patient in the hospital that Stella is friends with, and has a few sporadic parts.
In the end, the film has some parts and jokes that will make you smile. But it also has a long-winded list of things that made it less favorable to me, receiving a final rating of 5/10 stars.
