Written by Tom Moore
Upon seeing the trailer for Five Feet Apart, I couldn’t help but find myself thinking: “Oh boy, another one of THESE movies.” You know, the ones about sick/dying people going through the troubles of their illness, but still finding time to fall in love. Generally, they’re based on book, likely by Nicholas Sparks, and bring in a mostly female audience–along with a handful of husbands and boyfriends–for a roughly hour and a half to two-hour cry-fest. However, I have to say that Five Feet Apart has actually crushed all of my cynicism with a story that explores its own cynical themes of death and illness while also sprouting a touching romance that was tough to not be a sucker for.
Don’t get me wrong, the film’s story still hits its familiar beats and the way you expect the story to go is pretty much what happens—especially towards the film’s final act. The foreshadowing that the film attempts to do was so obvious at times that it took me out of certain moments. Honestly, though, it was pretty easy for me to look past these issues as the film had won me over already.
I’m not sure if it’s because of Rachael Lippincott’s book the film or the screenplay writers Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis or if it’s just from the great delivery by Cole Sprouse, but Five Feet Apart has some excellently unexpected dark humor and cynicism that really drew me in. Sprouse’s Will has a cynical attitude towards the disease that afflict him, Stella (Haley Lu Richardson), and Poe (Moises Arias): cystic fibrosis. This leads to plenty of dark humor that comes off completely genuine and even brings in some discussions about death and living with the disease.
Five Feet Apart actually goes into great detail about the disease and utilizes it to create unique moments. Cystis fibrosis is a genetic disorder that causes those afflicted to have weakened immune systems and a constant mucus build-up in their lungs that causes breathing difficulties. Not to mention, they can’t even touch one another or even be within six feet of one another as they could catch each other’s diseases. This is all played with very nicely throughout the film and makes certain moments that would often be seen as romantic come off as horrifying. Things like hugging, kissing, and touch are often seen as endearing in other romance movies, but here it gives off more feelings of horror and I can’t say that I’ve ever really seen anything like it.
It all works because the seriousness of their illness is never downplayed and through it, we get to understand the characters much better. Stella and Will’s relationship blooms through this seriousness as their polar opposite personalities collide at first but come together once they realize their real feelings for one another. Stella has control issues and Will doesn’t care to follow his regimen because of his cynicism, but the film does a great job building their relationship and creating immense chemistry between the two that comes from the excellent performances by Richardson and Sprouse. It’s also worth noting that Arias actually puts in a great performance as well and is a fun comic relief that will leave you both laughing and crying.
Five Feet Apart is the “sick romance” genre at its best and it creates both a strong awareness for cystic fibrosis and an endearingly loving romance that’s great to watch. Even in moments where it relies heavily on the tropes of the genre, it’s tough not to find yourself aw-ing and being completely invested in Stella and Will’s relationship. Also, I wouldn’t forget the tissues on this one, you just might need them.
Rating: 8/10
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