When you hear the phrase “young adult romance,” you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Add in the fact that the leads are dealing with a debilitating disease (cystic fibrosis, in this case) and you have the same thing, only with more tears. And that’s the biggest problem with Five Feet Apart. You know exactly what kind of movie it’s going to be. With a few exceptions, you can almost predict the movie beat for beat.
The movie centers around Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) and Will (Cole Sprouse), two teenagers in the hospital for cystic fibrosis (or CF) treatment. Stella is whip-smart, a stickler-for-the-rules; Will is the pessimistic rebel. The two predictably clash upon their first meeting, but through Will’s persistence and Stella’s obsession with making sure Will sticks to his medication routine, the two come together to build a friendship that turns into first love.
While chock full of genre clichés, there are enough surprises to give it a small feeling of freshness. But ultimately the clichés are too strong, and really weigh the movie down. And it’s unfortunate, because there is some definite good in Five Feet Apart, starting (and ending?) with the lead performances.
Haley Lu Richardson is fantastic as Stella; she owns the role. She draws you into the character’s intense inner turmoil as she deals with being dealt such a tough hand in life (CF is not the only struggle she’s had in her life). Cole Sprouse is an effective counterpart. His performance is not as strong. Similar to Riverdale castmate KJ Apa in The Hate U Give, Sprouse seems entrenched in the CW teenage boy stereotype. Luckily, that often fits with the storytelling here. But there are a handful of moments where he just wasn’t quite up to what the scene needed.
Aside from the (over)abundance clichés, there are two bigger issues that really dragged it down. First is the title and concept of five feet apart. It refers to the “six feet apart” guideline set forth by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It states that cystic fibrosis patients should not come closer than six feet to each other, to lower their risk of cross-infection. But in the movie, Stella and Will agree to their own “five feet apart” rule, as their own small way to steal something back from a disease that has taken so much from them.
While I agree with the sentiment behind the choice, it remains problematic. They have been dealing with CF their entire lives. They know what kind of havoc an infection can wreak; if serious enough, it can mean death. To take that risk for one extra foot? I can’t get behind that. Plus, the movie plays pretty fast and loose with both the five and six feet guidelines.
Me being me, I couldn’t help but pay extra attention to how close Stella and Willa were at any given moment. There are times when they seem to be closer than they should be, and there are times when they definitely are. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn’t. But you would think that there would have been particularly strong focus given to these moments, considering it’s one of the driving forces of the film.
All that played its part, but what really gets me is how emotionally manipulative the movie feels. There are moments that feel completely manufactured to get the audience to cry. The story by itself is tragic enough. Let the natural story arcs be told by the actors’ performances. Let them create the needed emotional connection to the audience. Just think about it. There are two teenagers who fall in love, who are living with a disease that could kill them at any time. This same disease prevents them from ever truly, fully being together.
The sympathy, empathy, sadness, tears, everything will come naturally with a story like that with strong leads. Now I understand how unrealistic it is to expect a movie (especially one like this) to not add drama for drama’s sake. And that’s fine. But it is overdone here and the movie is worse off for it. But to the movie’s credit, it works. I notoriously don’t cry during movies, and that remained the case. But I was darn close a handful of times. They want tears, and they’re going to get tears. And for all its flaws, if you’re looking for a good “make me cry movie,” you could do worse than Five Feet Apart.
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